


Queens of The Cure

by Littlestsociopath



Series: Queens of The Glade [3]
Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:28:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 50
Words: 100,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29287575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlestsociopath/pseuds/Littlestsociopath
Series: Queens of The Glade [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129442
Kudos: 2





	1. What We Remember

_Newt and Thomas walk in the tent and Cleo is already putting her shoes on. She looks up at them for a moment. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks.  
“Cleo?” Newt asks.  
“Yeah,” Cleo says. Newt looks relieved. “So, I have one question… Where the hell is-,”  
“Marie, yeah we are about to go get her,” Thomas says.  
“I was going to say Gally, who the hell is Marie?”  
“Why do you want to know where Gally is?” Newt asks.  
“Because Gally is my friend,” Cleo says.  
“Since when?” Newt asks.  
“Since always.”  
“You can’t be serious Cleo” Thomas says.  
“Don’t talk to me like you know me Thomas, just because you’re… a favourite, doesn’t make us friends,” Cleo says. Thomas and Newt look increasingly confused.  
“Wait, did you actually say who is Marie?” Thomas asks.  
“That’s often the correct way to respond when you don’t know someone,” Cleo says. A concern crosses over the boys.  
“Cleo do you know where you are?” Thomas asks. Cleo looks around again.  
“No, I don’t recognise these clothes or this place and I was about to ask someone when you came in looking so worried,” Cleo says.  
“Cleo, what do you last remember?”_

“Marie,” Minho says. Curie shakes her head.  
“Guess again.”  
“Curie.”  
“That’s the ticket.”  
“Why are you here?”  
“I am to watch you.”  
“Is that some kind of cruel joke?”  
“No, I am simply the best,” Curie says. “Although I do think the emotional pain likely does add to Janson’s satisfaction, but my purpose is to keep you safe.”  
“I don’t feel very safe.”  
“My orders aren’t anything to do with how you feel Minho. Feeling is irrelevant, and I guess in that way, I might as well be Marie.”

“Marie, The Glade,” Newt says again. Cleo just looks at him, tired now. It has been two days and she hasn’t left the tent. Newt has not stopped trying to get her to remember. But repeating people and memories to her isn’t making them come back and Newt is just getting more and more frustrated. “Come on Cleo I need you to try.”  
“Newt… I think I’m done,” Cleo says turning away from him.  
“Cleo, you don’t understand,” Newt says. Cleo sighs.  
“No, I understand, I understand perfectly, I am not who you wanted me to be when I woke up. I have three, and a bit, years of memory missing, and whoever those years made me, you want her back, and I get that, I don’t get your personal motives but I get it as a concept,” Cleo says. Newt is trying not to hurt her, he is dancing around so much of the truth but the line between telling her and it helping her remember and telling her and it not and just hurting her, is very fine. “Why do you care so much?”  
“How can you ask me that?” Newt asks. Cleo looks at him, blank faced and done. “Because you don’t remember…”  
“I don’t remember what?” Cleo asks.  
“Cleo what do you remember?” he asks. She sighs yet again and looks at him exasperated.  
“I have told you, you, Thomas and I, we were with my mother, with my sister, it was the same boring routine,” Cleo says.  
“Not about that, not about Wicked or Ava, about us, about Thomas and me and you,” Newt says.  
“I remember Thomas was always distracted, like he was never really paying attention. You were always paying attention just…” she trails off.  
“Just what?” he asks.  
“To something else,” Cleo says. Not to her. Without all the years in The Glade, without memories of Marie, before or after, not a memory at all, without all she has been through, it still feels so confusing. She remembers Newt not paying attention to her, but she can’t remember why. Without Marie so much doesn’t add up. It’s frustrating because she knows that Newt wants her to remember, that Thomas wants her to remember, and she doesn’t know why she cares so much what Thomas wants because she never really was friends with him. She assumes something changed in her lost time. But she knows why she wants to make Newt happy, she always has. Besides, in a selfish way, he has never paid her this much attention before and she wants to prove she is worth paying attention to. But it hurts her head when she thinks about the gaps for so long. She remembers yelling at her mother, and then it’s just darkness, until she woke up in the tent.  
Newt tells her about The Glade, about the big green expanse they lived in for so long, about her tower, about the fireside. He tells her that most of everyone she remembers was there. He tells her about the box and The Maze and the grievers. He tells her about Wicked and her mother and the escape, he talks about The Scorch, about the cranks. He tells her all he thinks he can. He leaves out how Gally died, and what happened to Chuck and Winston and the deepest darkest moments of Ava, he leaves out all he doesn’t know and more. He tells her what he thinks he can without hurting her. But it doesn’t do anything. Mostly he tells her about Marie. And the way he looks when he talks about her and Marie, she desperately wants to remember. The way he describes all she meant to her, she can’t help but think she couldn’t forget that. Newt tells her that is what confuses him most about her memories, he would understand if she just forgot The Maze, The Glade, the same way she forgot WCKD when she woke up in The Maze, but she even erased Marie from the older memories, the memories she got back from the serum.  
“Why did I forget?” Cleo asks. Newt looks away from her for the first time today. “Why don’t you want to tell me?”  
“I want you to remember the good first, all the good,” Newt says.  
“So it’s bad,” Cleo says. “Why do you want me to remember bad things Newt? Don’t you think this whole thing is cruel, it’s been two days, I can’t remember anything, not a thing. Why do you keep trying?”  
“I need you to remember,” he says.  
“You never needed me before, why do you need me now?” she asks.  
“You said that who we were before The Maze, didn’t matter, you said the person you had become was who mattered, that if you never got your memories back that didn’t matter, because you built the person you were and that was you, not your mother, not Wicked, that was you,” Newt says. “Which is why this hurts so much. Because you care about what we remember, you wouldn’t want it, you would hate it so much-”  
“She would hate it,” Cleo says. “She would, the Cleo you expect from me.”  
“Don’t be like that, it’s you, you’re Cleo, you’re m…”  
“I’m what?” Cleo asks.  
“My Cleo,” he says. Cleo frowns, confused.  
“What is that supposed to mean?” Cleo asks. When Newt doesn’t get any kind of response, he tries something else.  
“I don’t remember anything you remember Cleo, so tell me about it, what was I like before?” he asks.  
“You were sad,” Cleo says. “You were always looking at the door, like you expected someone to walk in at any moment.”  
“Who was I waiting for?” Newt asks.  
“I wasn’t ever sure, you wouldn’t talk to me, you always had someone else to talk to about that stuff,” Cleo says. The jealousy in her voice is something Newt had never heard in Cleo before, at least not in his memory.  
“Who? Who did I talk to, who was I paying attention to when I wasn’t looking at the door?” Newt asks. Cleo thinks really hard, but it is like a shadow, a gap and the longer she tried to remember the more her head hurt.  
“I don’t know Newt, I really don’t.”  
“Was it Marie?” he asks. Cleo doesn’t respond. “Cleo.”  
“I don’t remember her, I wish I did but I don’t know who she is,” Cleo says. The sadness in Cleo’s face makes him recoil slightly.  
“What about Gally?” he asks. Cleo looks surprised, no one seems to be willing to talk about Gally, not Newt or Thomas and she hasn’t seen anyone else.  
“What about him?” she asks. She wants to ask if he is here, if she can see him, but she doesn’t.  
“Why did you ask about him?” he asks.  
“I told you, we are friends,” she says.  
“Before The Maze,” he says.  
“Considering I remember nothing after The Maze,” Cleo mumbles.  
“Why was he the first thing you asked for?” Newt asks. “You wake up and you don’t know where you are, you don’t recognize anything, two people you know walk in and you ask for Gally?”  
“Why are you saying it like that?” Cleo asks. “I was always with Gally, he was my friend.”  
“Your friend,” he says flatly.  
“We weren’t together if that’s what that tone implies, not that I understand why you’d care,” Cleo says.  
“You and him weren’t,” he says.  
“Gally and I were never,” Cleo trails off. It isn’t a lie, not really, a few stolen kisses in corridors and goodnights, it doesn’t seem to count in Cleo’s mind. She is so wrapped up in the book, that one book, that Mary gave her, an idea, a notion of what it should be like. Gally was always more a day dream, than a reality.  
“In the lab?” Newt asks, “or in The Maze?”  
Cleo gets a strange feeling in her stomach, they tell her over and over again about The Maze but she remembers nothing. They tell her over and over and she seems to be the only one getting the idea it isn’t working. She doesn’t even have all her lab memories, where Marie should be it’s just blank. Like someone took her out specifically, just her. Anything that was her, is gone and there are just pieces of a puzzle that no longer fit together. But Newt asking that felt like she couldn’t answer, not because she didn’t know, which she does, but because like any answer she gave would be wrong, would be incorrect. Like it isn’t an answerable question. “You know I don’t remember The Maze,” Cleo says for what she thinks must be the hundredth time.  
“Then why did you hesitate?” Newt asks.  
“Because I am sick of you grilling me like you owe me something- it’s okay Newt, I know you don’t like me, I’m over it,” Cleo says. That takes Newt off guard and he can’t hide it on his face. The reminder than Newt and Thomas have none of her memories is immediate.  
“Cleo, why would you think-,”  
“Can I please speak to someone else?” Cleo asks. Of all the things Cleo has said to him over the last two days and all the ways they have affected him, all the ways he looked back at her after all she said, he has never looked at her the way he looks at her now.  
“What?” he asks, a shake in his voice.  
“Can I, please, speak to someone else,” Cleo repeats, slower this time, less certain, less demanding, but still as serious.  
“I,” Newt stumbles. “I could get Thomas.”  
“No,” Cleo says. “Anyone else, just not Thomas.”  
“And not me,” he says.  
“Yeah, not you.”

“I’d say you asked for me, but from what the boys tell me, you won’t even know my name,” Brenda says walking in. Cleo now laying on the tent bed is holding her book up above her face with one long extended arm, reading from a distance. She turns her head to her but doesn’t put the book down.  
“Sorry,” Cleo says looking her up and down. “But yeah, I really don’t know who you are.”  
“That’s funny,” she says.  
“Is it?” Cleo asks.  
“You don’t know who you are either though, do you?” Brenda asks. Cleo looks agitated because she is.  
“I do know who I am, I just don’t know who you want me to be,” Cleo says.  
“I don’t want you to be anything except yourself,” Brenda says.  
“You know,” Cleo says, lowering her book. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has said in the last two days.”  
“Well,” Brenda says moving to sit next to her bed. “I don’t know you very well Cleo, truth be told, I only met you about a week ago, a little over.”  
“Well at least I can’t have forgotten too much to disappoint you with then” Cleo says.  
“You saved my life, more than once,” Brenda says.  
“In under a week, how much of a liability are you?” Cleo jokes. Brenda laughs.  
“You saved me from an attack from a crank, you saved me from a gun pointed at me because of that attack, and you defended me in the crossfire, you wanted to make sure I was safe,” Brenda says.  
“Doesn’t sound like me, you make me sound… brave,” Cleo says.  
“You are, you are crazy brave,” she says. “You jumped, or fell willingly onto a broken glass panel to save me from a infectious monster that could have killed us both, if the fall didn’t. I saw you stand up to men not only twice your height, but twice your age. You shot a bow at men with guns, you are fierce.”  
“That doesn’t sound like me at all,” Cleo says, pulling herself up right and tucking her arms around her knees. “Can I ask you something?”  
“Anything,” Brenda says.  
“Why do Newt and Thomas care so much?” Cleo asks. “That I remember, or more specifically that I remember Marie? If she is so important why don’t I just meet her, maybe that would help.”  
“Oh, Newt has really tried to keep things light hasn’t he?” Brenda sighs.  
“Light, I was apparently kept in a maze surrounded by creatures by my mother and corporation who wants to harvest my blood, I had to escape and run into a harsh desert land where I was chased by monsters, what part of this is light?” Cleo asks.  
“Do you know what happened to Marie?” Brenda asks.  
“No,” Cleo says. Brenda sighs.  
“Your mother has her, and to be honest we need you to help get her back, because you aren’t just the brawn Cleo, you are the brains, you are the fight, they need you, the you we know, and that’s one of the reasons” Brenda says. “Thomas wants Marie back normally I couldn’t say more than anyone because there’s you princess and there is nothing you wouldn’t do for that girl.”  
“Princess?” Cleo asks. Brenda looks nervous.  
“Right, yeah,” Brenda says.  
“My aunt used to call me Pharaoh,” Cleo says.  
“Mary” Brenda says.  
“You know Mary, so she’s here?” Cleo asks, lighting up. Brenda’s heart sinks.  
“Oh… he really told you nothing,” Brenda says.  
“He says he doesn’t know what to tell me that will help and what would just hurt, if I won’t remember anything is it better that I don’t know certain things,” Cleo sighs. “But I don’t stand a chance of remembering anything at this rate.”  
“Your memories are so closely tied to your emotions Cleo, how much you loved her, he can’t ever make that clear to you, but the pain, the pain is different, the pain could work, I understand. He wants to protect you, he really cares about you and he doesn’t want to see you hurt, but I don’t think he is right. You said once that you didn’t want to remember who you used to be, and that who you were was what mattered and I’ll bet Newt has told you that a hundred times already. But that isn’t fair, not to tell a girl that only remembers who she was that she didn’t want to be that girl anymore. None of that’s fair, and I know he won’t tell you about Marie, or Mary or Aris and Sonya and Minho,” Brenda says.  
“Minho?” Cleo asks. “What about Minho?”  
“Oh Cleo,” Brenda says. “I am so sorry and he is going to hate me for this, but I have to tell you everything. It isn’t fair. I can’t lie to you, not after everything.”  
“Then tell me everything, I will be grateful no matter how much it hurts.”  
“It might not help.”  
“But it might.”

Cleo just stares. “Too much?” Brenda asks.  
“No. Not enough, I still have one question,” Cleo says.  
“Ask me,” Brenda says.  
“Why won’t they tell me where Gally is?” Cleo asks. Brenda looks at her like she said something she wasn’t supposed to. “What you can tell me my best friend killed my aunt because my bitch of mother took stuff too far but you can’t tell me where Gally is?”  
“He’s dead, Cleo,” Brenda says. “He died before you left Wicked the first time, when you left The Maze.”  
“How did he die?” Cleo asks slowly. Brenda stumbles.  
“I think, I think he got shot,” Brenda says. Even Brenda doesn’t know how to tell Cleo what she knows, that Cleo shot Gally to protect Thomas.  
“You think?” Cleo asks.  
“You didn’t really talk about it, I don’t think I am even supposed to know, you see, we had this conversation you and I, about people we loved and lost, and after a few… moments you had, I started to guess, the person you were talking about was Gally, the way you acted when people talked about him, but I guessed it wasn’t my business. And especially with Newt, I assumed it was either not common knowledge or just something you didn’t talk about,” Brenda says.  
“You think Gally and I…” Cleo trails off.  
“I don’t know, but you, when you were scared Cleo or confused, you said his name, like it was a reminder or something calling you back,” Brenda says. “But like I said, I barely know you, I just know you are the girl who lost her bow, her precious bow, to save my life. The girl who stood between a gun and me even though I was a danger to everyone and everything she worked hard for. I don’t know much about the life you’ve forgotten, I was only in it for a very short time. But I know what kind of person you are, someone worth remembering.”  
“Okay,” Cleo says, settling her shoulders, “okay… what about Newt, you said especially with Newt, what do you mean by that?”  
“You and Newt, the thing you have…”  
“What thing?”  
“He didn’t even… that boy.”  
“What?” Cleo asks.  
“You and him have feeling for each other and you both know it but you just avoid it, because of Marie I think, maybe she likes him too, and out of some loyalty you turned Newt down, but he still kissed you when you all nearly died,” Brenda says.  
“Sorry… what?”  
“I don’t really understand it either,” Brenda says. “You two are cute together I don’t understand why you just won’t be happy.”  
“I don’t either, all I ever wanted was Newt to even look at me, pretty much since the day he arrived I couldn’t see anything else, he was like,” Cleo pulls her book off the bed, “he was the guy, the right guy, the good guy. I don’t understand any version of me that would ever let that chance go.”  
“I can’t explain that to you either,” Brenda says. Brenda looks around the tent. “Look maybe getting out would help you.”  
“Brenda, you might actually be a genius,” Cleo says jumping to her feet. “I have an idea.”  
Cleo and Brenda leave the tent and the stretch of rock and sand takes Cleo a little off guard but then she sees them, Thomas and Newt talking to a girl not too far from where she and Brenda stand. Cleo makes a beeline for them.  
“Wait, Newt,” Thomas says noticing Cleo first.  
“You think it worked?” Harriet asks. Newt turns to look at her just as she arrives.  
“Cleo,” he says. She grabs his shoulders and she kisses him and everyone, including Cleo is taken a little aback. She pulls away after a moment and looks at him.  
“Well,” Frypan says coming to join them. “I guess she remembered something?”  
“Siggy,” Cleo says. His expression changes.  
“Or not…” Frypan says. “No one calls me that.”  
“What do they call you?” Cleo asks.  
“Frypan,” he says. Cleo raises an eyebrow.  
“Okay,” she says.  
“Why did you kiss me?” Newt asks.  
“Brenda said you kissed me, I thought it might jog my memory,” Cleo says. Newt stares at her.  
“Did it?”  
“No.”


	2. But Not Her

“I still don’t understand what his point is, you are here,” Harriet says.   
“I am not who he wants me to be,” Cleo says. “All he wants to talk about is getting my memories back, it has been a week, and I have nothing, and each time he remembers I am not her he looks so sad. I don’t even want be around him if I just make him that sad.”  
“But he loves you and you are here,” Harriet says. “he is so ungrateful. You are still you.”  
“He never loved this version of me, he was always interested in something else,” Cleo is fidgeting. “I am not the girl he loves Harriet, that is the problem.”  
“But that version of you didn’t even see that interested,” Harriet says. “You were hitting Sonya when you arrived.”  
“Sonya?” Cleo asks. “Oh, oh, the girl who Wicked took.”  
“Yeah,” Harriet fumbles.   
“I’m sorry,” Cleo says. “She is no one in my head but she means something to you, that was rude.”  
“I understand Cleo,” Harriet reaches into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled polaroid photo and in it is her and a blonde girl, Sonya. “This is Sonya.”  
“I hit on her, what did I say?” Cleo asks.  
“You said she reminded you of someone from a dream,” Harriet says. Cleo looks mortified.   
“No I did not,” Cleo refuses.  
“You did actually,” Brenda confirms.   
“What did she say?” Cleo asks.  
“She asked if you were hitting on her,” Harriet says not taking her eyes off the picture.  
“And then you said, no, but I can be,” Brenda mocks.   
“I did not,” Cleo says, but she kind of feels like she did, like a memory, like a very foggy feeling. It sounds like the kind of thing Cleo would say to a pretty girl. “She just looks like Lizzie.”  
“Lizzie?” Harriet asks. “Who’s Lizzie?”  
“She was a little girl I knew back at the lab, I didn’t know her for long, she went somewhere else, but she looks just like her, if she was like seven years older and hot,” Cleo says. “I am sorry, I do believe I probably did hit on Sonya.”  
“Seven years?” Harriet asks.   
“If I am missing close to four years of memory, I would say about seven years, she came in at the same time as Newt, you’d probably be better off asking him about it, she was his sister I think, maybe cousin but I think sister,” Cleo says. “He didn’t talk to me about it, he was had…”   
“He always had?” Brenda encourages.  
“Someone else to talk to,” Cleo says. “I guess, considering I don’t remember, that someone else must be Marie, right? She is the big blank from both then and now.”  
“I would guess that,” Harriet says. Cleo looks at Harriet and the way she looks at that photo, she knows that look, she recognises that feeling, that longing.   
“Oh… I hit on your girl, I am so sorry,” Cleo says. Harriet looks flustered for a moment but doesn’t deny it. “I didn’t know, from what I gather I seemed to be good at getting in people’s way, under their feet.”  
“If you’re talking about Marie, I heard Marie say on more than one occasion Newt wasn’t hers to begin with,” Brenda says. Cleo sighs.   
“Yet somehow, I feel like he was, if she is the blank in my memory then she was, Newt was so wrapped up in whatever or whoever what he never would have noticed me, and if he only noticed me because Marie wasn’t there to notice, did he ever really notice me at all?” Cleo asks.  
“I wish I could help more,” Brenda says, “but I don’t know.”  
“I wish I could help at all, I barely even met you,” Harriet says. “and I only really knew two things about you.”  
“What are those?” Cleo asks.  
“You are kind of scary with a gun, and you would do anything to protect-,”  
“Marie… everyone keeps saying that.”  
“Enough talk about that,” Brenda says, “there is no point torturing you about something like that. You don’t remember, I wont force you too, you are who you are Cleo, memories or not you are still badass.”  
“I have to agree with that, I watched you point that gun at Ava, I watched you pull that trigger, I know it jammed, but honestly, you were insane,” Harriet says.   
“I just, I don’t stand up to my mother, it isn’t me, and I haven’t ever shot a gun, that confidence, I don’t know,” Cleo says.   
“You’re quite good with a gun actually, but it has to be your gun, and you have to mean it,” Brenda says.   
“My gun?” Cleo asks.   
“The one tucked under your shirt all day every day,” Brenda says. Cleo places a hand on her stomach and through her all in one and her shirt she feels it, the gun she had almost forgot was there despite the number of times she had picked it up to inspect it and only then put it back where she had found it again.   
“Do you know why this gun is special?” Cleo asks.  
“It’s special?” Harriet asks.  
“I feel like I can’t put it down, like I won’t let myself” Cleo says.  
“Sorry,” Brenda says. “I know you won’t shoot that thing unless it is important, very important, those bullets, you treat them like your most precious asset, but I don’t know why. You’d have to ask Newt or Thomas on that one.”

“Do you remember Lizzie?” Cleo asks, leaning on the edge of a truck. Newt who is sat on the bumper looks at her.   
“Whose Lizzie?” he asks.   
“This must be how you feel, all the time,” Cleo sighs. “She was your little sister, I think. Only by a year or two, so very blonde, less of an accent but still, she still had one.”  
“I had a sister?” Newt asks. Cleo nods. Newt is looking into the distance, trying to put that into perspective. Cleo realises that may not have been a fair thing to say, for all the reasons Newt had tried to not tell her things, to know something is missing yet not remember ever having it, is painful.  
“I think you did, but I guess my memories aren’t reliable, even the ones I have,” Cleo pulls out her gun. “Like this, can you tell me about this?”  
Newt looks at the gun and then back at Cleo. He doesn’t know as much as Marie could have told her, he can’t tell her she used that gun to kill one person she loved to save the heart of another she loved. He can’t tell her that gun feels like the one connection, the one thing she has left of someone she had to leave behind. He can’t tell her that gun is the thing she is most precious about. But he can tell her something. “That’s the gun that shot Gally,” Newt says. Cleo looks at it with a new sense of horror.  
“Why do I have this?” Cleo asks. Newt doesn’t look at her now and she slowly starts to piece together what people are scared to tell her. “I shot Gally, didn’t I?”  
“You were protecting-,”  
“Marie?” Cleo asks. Newt for a moment thinks she is remembering but from the look on her face he realises it is a guess.  
“Yeah, Marie,” Newt says. Cleo runs a hand through her hair, presses her shoulders into the frame of the truck.  
“It’s always Marie,” Cleo says.   
“You would do anything for her Cleo,” Newt says.  
“Including giving up my happiness” Cleo says.  
“Yeah,” Newt climbs off the truck. “Including that. But she made you different, stronger, it is hard for you to understand, but Marie was your light, and sure you were both complicated and so willing to sacrifice for each other, but you wouldn’t have it any other way.”  
“But isn’t she something else now, something dark, some solider for the big bad guys?” Cleo asks.  
“That’s not Marie,” Newt says. “That’s Curie.”  
“But it is, it is Marie, it is her body and her mind-,”  
“But not her,” Newt says.   
“Why don’t you go get her then?” Cleo asks.   
“We don’t stand a chance without you Cleo.”  
“Then I am worried you are looking at a lost cause,” Cleo says.   
“Can you,” Newt says, thinking about it. “Can you give me the gun?”  
Cleo looks at it in her hand, for a really long time. She doesn’t remember ever shooting this gun, the weight feels daunting in her hand. She sort of wants to, hand it over, let it leave her. But she can’t. She can’t let it go. She shakes her head. “Sorry, Newt, but no,” she says and walks away.   
Newt, in the fading light lets himself smile. “So, you are in there, I was beginning to think you were gone completely,” he whispers to himself.

Teresa looks awkwardly at Curie who is reading from a clipboard. Curie doesn’t look up. “Yes Teresa?” she asks. Teresa doesn’t know how to explain the feeling of looking at Curie, such a different person in such a familiar face. She remembers it all now, she remembers what happened to her and why and how. She understands how all the paths led to her here, but it is still strange to look at her, like she is now, knowing what she knows.  
“Nothing,” Teresa says. “Nothing at all.”  
“I should check on him,” Curie says.   
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Teresa says. “I know what we are required to put subjects through for the increased production of the enzyme, but I don’t think this specific type of torture really helps.”  
“What, you can standby and watch while they are killed by creatures you helped create but you can’t see him look at me? You sound soft Teresa,” Curie says.  
“I just don’t think it helpful, when it is in service to the cause,” Teresa says.  
“Then you can pretend there is anything left in that chest of yours,” Janson says cutting her off. “Don’t pretend Teresa, you are just as empty as the rest of us. Curie go check on your subject.”  
Curie leaves the room to observe Minho, he looks tired and broken. He doesn’t look up as she enters. She checks for any signs of issue and when she steps closer, Minho grabs her, Curie doesn’t fight him, knowing she can escape his grip easily, especially in his current state, she just lets him play it out. “Marie,” he whispers, “I know you are in there, Marie.”  
“She is,” Curie says. “She is in here, and she is screaming, begging for me to just go back, to let you go, to stop all of this. You are making her sad you know.” In the moment he pauses, she pushes him back into his seat and removes his arms from her. “So very sad.”

“Cleo,” Harriet says, grabbing her as she heads to bed.   
“Yeah?” she asks. Harriet is holding in her hand a bundle of fabric that Cleo can’t quite make out in the dark.   
“I found this and I think it is yours,” Harriet says. Cleo looks at what she is carrying again, it is a jacket, small with camouflage print denim for the body and leather arms. A realisation crosses through Cleo and she feels like she could cry.  
“That’s Mary’s,” Cleo says. “It, it was Mary’s, she made it out of my father’s childhood jacket and I-,”  
“Cleo I am sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Harriet says.   
“No, no, you haven’t, not at all,” Cleo says, slipping the jacket on. “Thank you.”  
“No problem,” Harriet says attempting to leave.   
“Hey Harriet,” Cleo says. “I will try to remember, I will, we will get your girl back.”  
“Mary said you were like your father, not like your mother, now I never knew your father but I know your mother, and I only see Mary in your Cleo, only good,” Harriet says.  
“He was a sailor,” Cleo says. “My father. He was strong and quiet, but he was the sweetest man, he made really good soup, and these sugar cookies that could make any bad day better, and he always tucked us in. He would sing to us, every night, sometimes twice if we woke up from a bad dream. Apparently, his songs were one of the few things I remembered in The Maze.”  
“Could you sing them?” Harriet asks, starting to sit down.   
“If you want me to,” Cleo says.  
“I think I would like that,” Harriet says.  
“Now I have to warn you, my father was a sailor and he had a sailor’s mouth and songs to match, they may not have been the most appropriate for children, but they were his,” Cleo says.  
“Which was your favourite?” Harriet asks. Cleo smiles.   
“You really want my favourite?” Cleo asks. Harriet nods. “Okay.” Cleo looks around for something to tap with but failing to find anything she taps two fingers into the palm of her hand. “Oh you hear a lot of stories 'bout the sailors and their sport, about how every sailor has a girl in every port,” at the sound of her singing Brenda comes around and sits with them, not interrupting her, “but if you added two and two you'd figure out right quick, it's just because the girls all have a lad on every ship.” As she sings the sound drifts over the sand and rock and around the quiet camp. Thomas is the first to hear it.  
“Wait is that?” Thomas asks.  
“Cleo is singing,” Frypan says.   
“I don’t recognise this one,” Thomas says. Newt frowns, following the sound.  
“Neither do I,” he says.  
“And it's Twiddle ee ai dee ai dee ai. Twiddle ee ai dee ei. It's often times a man will leave you broken with dismay. And it's Twiddle ee ai dee ai dee ai. Twiddle ee ai dee ei. There's other things to twiddle when the men have sailed away,” Cleo sings. Brenda and Harriet start to laugh and the boys draw nearer. “Lucky Annie was a lady who'd been pleased by many men,” Cleo is practically beaming at this point. “They all would sail away but then they'd come right back again. But if they never sailed her way she really didn't care. Cause I know that you don't need a man to twiddle under there.” Amongst Harriet and Brenda’s laughter Cleo starts to break down in laughter herself.   
“What?” Harriet asks.  
“I told you it wasn’t appropriate,” Cleo points out.  
“You never sung that one before,” Newt says. Cleo turns her head to see the boys standing there.  
“I am not surprised, from what you tell me I was the only girl in a boys world for a while before Marie arrived, why would I sing that?” Cleo asks.   
“Is that all the song?” Brenda asks. Cleo shakes her head she starts to sing again and then it happens, like a flash flood.  
Cleo sees The Glade, she sees the tall walls of The Maze, she sees the watch tower, she sees the campfire. She remembers walking The Maze singing to herself. She remembers the ivy and the way it climbed the walls. She remembers the trees, and the green and the huts. She remembers making her bow under the hot sun. She remembers the box. Just places, details, location, no people or clear memories of events, but she remembers The Glade.   
“Cleo?” Newt asks.   
“I remember The Glade,” Cleo says. “I don’t remember much, but I remember the tall walls of The Maze and I remember the wall of names and the trees where I practiced with my bow. I remembered something. I actually remembered something.”  



	3. My Purpose

“Curie,” Ava says looking across the room at her. Curie turns to her, expression unchanged, blank and resistant.   
“Yes, Ava,” Curie responds.   
“Status update,” Ava says.  
“Saviour Protocol in full effect,” Curie responds.   
“And Marie?” Ava asks.   
“Barely even a whisper,” Curie says.  
“But she is a whisper,” Ava says.   
“She is something you need not concern yourself with,” Curie says. Ava looks at her, Curie, so stoic and motionless, such a harsh contrast to the body she inhabits. Curie, the perfect solider, overtaking the carer, the soft and the sweet and the innocent, all replaced by hunger and purpose and destruction. Ava thinks it almost sad, if it wasn’t so perfect.   
“Tell me one more time, exactly what happened with Cleopatra,” Ava instructs her.   
“Due to interference from Subject A2 and A5 I was unable to specifically administer all the required solution, however I have no doubt that it was at least fifty percent effective,” Curie says.   
“And what does fifty percent effectivity entail?” Ava asks.   
“I cannot ensure she lost of all her memories from the last few years, I cannot ensure there won’t be side effects and I cannot guarantee a complete removal of neuropathways, but I am certain with the environment, if nothing else Cleopatra will have lost enough memories to reduce her threat level,” Curie says.   
“So, her memories could come back,” Ava says.  
“With the serum in one shot there was always a thirteen percent change of that, yes,” Curie confirms.   
“And was that based on full serum? What about now, what is the statistic now?” Ava asks. Curie pauses, calculating in her mind.  
“Twenty-two point six,” Curie says.  
“That’s higher than ideal,” Ava says.   
“Your daughter has been known to defy the odds,” Curie says, “however one person can only be better than the odds so much, she isn’t lucky.”  
“No,” Ava says. “She certainly isn’t, if she was-,”  
“If she was she would have died in that goddamn maze like intended,” Janson adds.   
“So, what do we predict she will have actually forgotten?” Ava asks.  
“At least most recent things, she likely won’t remember leaving The Maze, she might not remember a portion of The Maze at all, so she shouldn’t remember why she was there and what she was up against,” Janson says.   
“But the others will likely tell her,” Ava says.  
“Doesn’t mean anything, Cleopatra is more of a seeing is believing type, she won’t go on others words, not often, she has to trust them. And a confused Cleopatra is a vigilant one, she doesn’t have an anchor, and she won’t be able to make one with her memories partly gone, she will suspect everything and everyone,” Janson says.   
“Don’t underestimate her,” Curie says. “We did what we did because of the threat Cleopatra is, it would be foolish to consider her less of a threat without any evidence.”  
“Too right,” Janson says. He looks at her and she looks at Ava. He hasn’t really gotten past the whole, her shooting him, thing, but he is trying to be professional.   
“How is the immune doing?” Ava asks.   
“Teresa or Minho?” Curie asks. Ava smiles just a little bit.   
“The boy,” she says.   
“He is determined, unsurprisingly. He fights back at every opportunity, but he is worn down, he seems lost,” Janson says.  
“He doesn’t know how to process my presence,” Curie adds. “He thinks he can access Marie and he doesn’t stop trying.”  
“Can he?” Ava asks. Curie shakes her head.  
“As I have told you. Marie isn’t a concern,” Curie says.  
“She better not be,” Janson says, eyeing her.  
“Nothing he can do or say can reach her, I am in control,” Curie says. “I know my purpose and I am fit for it.”  
“I am glad to hear that,” Janson says. “We can’t risk Marie.”  
“Marie doesn’t have the strength to overtake me in the same ways I overtook her, she is fragile, she is emotional, she is unpredictable, I run this mind, clearly and without impairment,” Curie says. “Do you have reason to doubt me?”  
“Not a single one.”  
“Then I would appreciate a refrain from repeating futile questions,” Curie says. She eyes Janson with disapproval. “Especially from those who act on emotion over protocol.”  
It feels like the wound where the bullet hit him is opening up again as she watches him, Janson is a lot of things, but a gracious loser isn’t one of those things. It’s a strange mix of pride and anger he gets looking at Curie, at the daughter that is both all he hoped she would be and completely the opposite simultaneously.  
“Well, if that is all Curie you should likely get back to your duties,” Ava says. Curie reaches the door before Ava speaks again. “And Curie, keep an eye on Teresa, I don’t doubt her loyalty or her intentions, but I am so acutely aware of her weaknesses and I know a few people who would be brazen enough to try and twist them.”  
“Protect the immunes,” Curie responds. “It is my purpose.”  
“Yes, yes, it is.”

Minho stares at the ceiling. He hasn’t said anything the whole time Teresa has been talking to him. “Look even Aris was more cooperative than this Minho,” Teresa says. He wants to tell her to go fuck herself, but he refrains. He says nothing. He is trying to focus so hard on the ceiling, so hard that it becomes not a ceiling anymore, but an idea of a ceiling, and an idea can be dismissed. In his own mind he is trying to be somewhere else. Somewhere that isn’t here or now. But not just anywhere. He is focusing so very hard on one moment, one brief moment in time. A moment in The Glade. A moment in The Glade that was the start of something, something he has held onto every moment since. The only thing that he is able to hold onto now with certainty. The moment he first fell for Marie. The one thing, that no amount of Curie, or Teresa or torture or distance, or time, can take away from him. That very first moment, that was him stepping over the edge. Marie had always been a wonder from the moment he saw her, she was kind and sweet and delicate and so caring, so caring despite the world she was in, despite the people, despite the trying nature of her life, she just kept caring. She kept being kind. No matter what was thrown at her. She was positive and she was optimistic and even if she didn’t believe she stood a chance of making it out, she never let it show. He admired her resilience even before he noticed her in any other way. She may not have been brave like Cleo was or brave like him, but Marie had something Minho valued more than bravery, she had hope. She was hope. Just like Cleo had said time and time again, Marie was the light of The Glade. She was our hope. She was always hope. She was always his hope, and even now, even faced with Curie and the state of things, Marie was the thing that grounded him, and also the thing that helped him escape. She was all and she was more.   
“He isn’t responsive,” Teresa says as Curie walks in.   
“I’ll try,” Curie says, approaching him. “He doesn’t look any different to yesterday, he is likely just ignoring you.”  
“I am aware of that,” Teresa says.  
“He doesn’t like you,” Curie adds.  
“I am also aware of that,” Teresa sighs.  
“Am I bothering you Teresa?” Curie asks.   
“Not by your intention,” Teresa says, trying to not take Curie’s programming as more personal than it is. She understands Curie is all purpose and tasks, she doesn’t truly have the capacity to be intentionally difficult, it just feels that way. Curie reminds her oddly of Cleopatra, and that is probably the reason it gets under her skin so much. Teresa never had any specific issues with Cleopatra, not really, not to begin with anyway. But her persistence, her defiance, her better-than-you choices bothered her. Cleo thought she was better than Teresa, and whether she was or wasn’t didn’t matter, the fact Cleo thought it at all got to Teresa. Cleo has no vision, Teresa always told herself. But that wasn’t it, not really. Cleo had vision, she just had a very different perspective on what was and wasn’t acceptable.   
“Just my existence then,” Curie says.   
“Focus on your subject,” Teresa mumbles. Curie turns back to Minho, but she keeps an awareness of Teresa. As Teresa may choose to forget, but she is as much Curie’s subject as Minho, the only difference between then is the restraints.


	4. You're Not Weak Because You're Sad

A month since Cleo got her first memories back and she has made progress, but not in the leaps and bounds the boys were hoping for. Cleo remembers the time spent in The Glade now, she remembers her friends, all of them, the loved and the lost, she remembers Chuck and Gally, Alby and Ben. She remembers her early friendship with Newt, she doesn’t remember Thomas or his arrival in The Glade, she doesn’t remember any Marie at all. Her memories pull a blank right after her entering The Maze, and her reasoning for doing so, she keeps being told is Marie but she can’t recall. Despite remembering the argumentative connection she had with Gally she can’t reason why. There are still so many pieces missing, she can’t remember not having memories for the most part. It’s all one big swirl of things she doesn’t understand. The more she tries to make sense of it the less sense it makes. So, she tries not to think about it. Two sides of herself at war with each other, the girl who wants to remember who she was and the girl who never did. She wonders what would happen if she did get all her memories back, if that Cleo she is expected to become, trying to get back to, if she would think poorly of her. If she would think of her at all. Cleo, in the quietest moments, wonders if her, this version of her, will even still be there if she gets herself back, or if she gets shoved into the backburner, like a memory.  
She fills her days with Harriet and Brenda logistically planning attacks on Wicked, following the information they pick up to plan rescue and extraction. Cleo without her memories isn’t allowed on any reconnaissance missions herself so she does what she can to help from outside the fight. She doesn’t hide her discomfort in being benched and with every sly comment or snappish reply to being reminded she isn’t allowed to come, Newt smiles, a small hope that Cleo is becoming more into herself with each day and whether that is true or a fools dream is yet to be seen.   
Cleo spends most of her active time trying to remember, trying to remember Gally. She knows her purpose above all is to remember Marie, the girl she was willing to both die and kill for. She understands why she is supposed to be working towards that. And yet she is almost reluctant. The more she learns about herself, the more she is told about the girl she was with Marie, the less she really understands why they want that version of her back. So, she tries to fill in the blank she wants to know about, Gally. With the exception of Brenda and her little confessions of assumption, no one can tell her anything about Gally really, and in the absence of the information Cleo is aware that perhaps whatever memories she is searching for where hers and hers alone for a reason. So, she refrains from suggesting to Newt or the others than her memories of Gally are important to her. It feels like a secret, one she doesn’t understand. But one she wants to. “It’s the guilt,” she tells herself. She needs to believe that she told him something, anything before he died, that at least one version of her had some sense to tell him that he meant something to her. But she fears she didn’t. the way the others describe the two of them, the few memories of him she has, they suggest a very different relationship than the one they had in the lab. One more distant and volatile.   
She sits on the floor of the tent and holds the gun in one hand. “Did I ever tell you what you meant to me?” she whispers.   
“Cleo?” Harriet’s voice comes from outside. Cleo quickly puts the gun away, like a secret she is supposed to hide. Like Gally. Harriet’s voice is unsteady and quiet.  
“Come in,” she says. Cleo forgets her mission immediately when she sees Harriet’s eyes, so filled with fear and sadness. She doesn’t ask why her friend looks so lost, because she already knows. She feels the sadness in a deep well in her chest. It hurts to miss the person you love, even if you don’t know who they are.   
Cleo pulls Harriet into a hug and Harriet laughs an empty, silent laugh, without humour, filled with sorrow. “I feel so stupid right now,” Harriet says, “I know you have bigger things but I just-,”  
“Hush,” Cleo says and holds her tighter. “You miss your girl, don’t apologise for that. I just wish I could help you. I wish I could be the person who can help you.”  
“Don’t,” Harriet says. “Don’t think because you aren’t what Newt wants you to be that you aren’t useful Cleo,” she squeezes Cleo’s arm through the leather sleeve of Cleo’s jacket. “You are my friend when I have needed one, you are the girl who sees what others can’t, you may not be that Cleo, but you are our Cleo. Don’t forget that.”  
“I promised you we would get her back right,” Cleo says. “And I mean it, we will get Sonya back.”  
“And you will look at her and tell us if she is the girl from your memories,” Harriet says.   
“And this time it wont sound like a come on,” Cleo says, chuckling a little.  
“This time,” Harriet says, a faint smile on her quivering lips.   
“You’re not weak because you’re sad Harriet, sometimes our sadness is what keeps us strong, focused,” Cleo says.   
“And sometimes it is what causes us to lose sight of the bigger picture,” Harriet says.  
“You’re worried we would leave without her,” Cleo says.  
“We might have to,” Harriet whispers. Cleo yanks a small piece of her hair.   
“Don’t talk like that,” Cleo says. “We will find them. We will find them all.”  
“And you will get your memories back, and everyone will live happily ever after?” Harriet asks.   
“Yeah,” Cleo says, rolling her eyes.  
“You promise,” she says, a teasing tone.   
“I promise,” Cleo says, seriously.   
“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep Cleopatra,” Harriet says.  
“You shouldn’t call her that,” Brenda says, making her way into the tent without asking. “You also shouldn’t be hiding out without inviting me.”  
“We weren’t hiding out,” Cleo defends.  
“No, I was just being sad,” Harriet says.  
“That’s allowed” Brenda says. Cleo doesn’t know the extent of what she doesn’t know, but she knows Harriet is missing a girl she loves because of some poor choices made along the way. She knows that Brenda is missing a brother she adored because Wicked believed they had the right to choose to take him away. And she knows that she misses a boy who as far she is aware, she more or less ignored for three years, and ended up killing for a girl who is just missing memories. 

“Was I a good person?” Cleo asks out of the blue. Fry looks surprised but goes with it.   
“You were a good person,” he says almost with enough confidence to make it sound believable.   
“Fry,” Cleo says slowly.   
“You always did what you thought was the right thing, and maybe we didn’t always agree with you, maybe we thought you could be reckless or impulsive but never bad Cleo. You seem to view the person you became as this enemy trying to take replace yourself, but it isn’t like that, you are so like her, because she was you. She is you,” Fry says.   
“Then why does it matter?” Cleo asks.   
“Because there is one thing Cleo had that you don’t,” Fry says.   
“Marie?”  
“Marie.”  
“Didn’t she make me weak, the way you talk about her, about me and her, the things I did, how is it good for me to remember that, why does everyone want me to remember things that surely will only hurt me more?” Cleo asks.   
“Because you would want to remember, and we have a duty and a loyalty to Cleo,” Fry says.   
“You want to write a wrong,” Cleo says. “When you guys let Curie take away my memories, and you let Minho get captured, you want to write that wrong, and you think you have to get her back to do that. Which I get in theory, but Newt is longing for a girl who I gather would never be with him. Thomas is after the answer to all his problems in a girl who was irrational and selfish when it came to Marie. Surely the fighter you want back is no good to you with Marie gone, without her in sight what is the point, because without Marie, couldn’t that Cleo just be a mess?”  
“When Marie was in danger, Cleo was irrational, she was impulsive, she was dangerous,” Fry admits, “but she was also fearless, she was unmatched in her determination and unstoppable.”  
“She sounds like a joy,” Cleo mumbles, focusing on the food.   
“There is nothing Cleo wouldn’t do for Marie, not a damn thing,” Fry says. Cleo slams her hand down.  
“Shouldn’t that worry you?” Cleo demands. “Shouldn’t a girl who is completely lost and completely uncontrollable without Marie, not be someone you are eager to bring back when you don’t have Marie.”  
“We need her to get Marie,” Fry says, trying to keep Cleo calm.  
“Because Marie isn’t Marie anymore, right? She is some cold robot type, used by Wicked, to try and keep and capture us,” Cleo says. “Are you playing right into their hands?”  
“Maybe,” Fry admits. “But there is only one person who could always see the weaknesses.”  
“Marie?”  
“No,” Fry says. “You. That is why we need you back Cleo. Alby was our leader, Newt was our voice of reason, Minho was a protector and a leader when we needed one, but you and Thomas, you were our wildcards.”  
“You still have Thomas,” Cleo says. Fry sighs.  
“Except when Thomas loses Marie it doesn’t make him strong, it makes him weak, it makes him open for more mistakes, you become open to less.”  
“I don’t believe you.”  
“I can’t ask you too,” Fry says. “You don’t know yourself, I can’t expect anything from you, and I don’t, unlike Newt and Thomas, I am not playing the memory game with you. Newt might forget, and Thomas got most his memories back so probably forgot even easier, but I remember what trying to drag those memories from the dark felt like. And I also remember how pointless it was. Thomas got stung and he got his memories back, some of them. Teresa got given hers back. You remembered songs and stories over three years, but not memories. Never memories.”  
“You think it’s pointless, don’t you?” Cleo asks. Fry shakes his head.  
“No, you have already proven that it isn’t pointless, Cleo, you remembered The Glade, and more than that you remember the memories most of us don’t, you remember before, in trying to take from you, they unintentionally gave you an ace, and you may not know what to do with it just yet, and it may not seem important right now. But you remember, when all they tried to do was make you forget. That means something… so no. I don’t think it is pointless. I just think that demanding you remember isn’t going to make you remember any more or any faster. I think you are a spectacle as is, and we just need to let you work it out,” Fry says. “But who listens to me, I am just the Keeper of The Cooks.”  
“And a hell of a good shot,” Cleo smiles. Fry frowns.   
“How do you know that?” he asks. She shrugs.   
“I just have a feeling it’s true, is it?”  
“I think it is.”  
“See, more than just a cook.”

“You remember Minho,” Thomas says.   
“Hard to believe I could forget Minho,” Cleo says.   
“Do you remember Gally’s drink?” he asks. Cleo pulls a face. “So yes.”  
“Now that is burned into both my body and my mind,” Cleo jokes. Like Gally, she thinks. Thomas smiles before remembering the state they are in. “We were friends, weren’t we?”  
“I like to think so,” Thomas says.   
“That’s why you care so much, because if it was just about Marie, I don’t doubt you’d have hit me over the head with a rock to see if that worked, by now,” Cleo says.   
“Think it would?” Thomas jokes.  
“Want to risk it?” Cleo asks.  
“Probably not,” Thomas confesses.  
“I hurt him,” Cleo says. “Didn’t I?”  
“You hurt know?” Thomas asks. Cleo pauses, considering her response.  
“Newt,” she says. “I hurt Newt.”  
“You need to be a little more specific than that,” Thomas says.   
“Talking about Lizzie,” Cleo says.   
“He doesn’t remember, not even a little bit, not even a fraction of a memory, and to be honest, I think it may have put your situation back into perspective for him,” Thomas says.  
“I didn’t mean to hurt him, I never wanted to hurt him, not then, not now,” Cleo says.   
“But you think other you, she did?” Thomas asks.  
“She rejected him, didn’t she?” Cleo asks.  
“I don’t think she did, I don’t think it was that simple,” Thomas says.  
“She either did or she didn’t,” Cleo says.   
“Cleo the world isn’t so black and white, you should know that,” Thomas says.  
“Because Cleo knew that?” Cleo asks.  
“No, because you know what you know about Curie, about Marie, about me, who I was, and what I did, and who I am now, and what I am doing,” Thomas says. “It isn’t about what you remember about Newt or Marie or The Glade or Wicked. It is about knowing where you are now, the situation you are in now, and what that means.”  
“And what does it mean Tommy?” Cleo asks. She is surprised by herself and the way she called him Tommy, like she had done it before. Like it made sense.   
“It means that you can’t look at who you are like she isn’t you, you can’t see yourself as two people, you are just Cleo,” he says.  
“She didn’t want me back either,” Cleo says.   
“She didn’t want you to need to matter, that’s not the same thing. She didn’t want her life to be dependent on what she couldn’t remember.”  
“Because I-,”  
“Not because of you at all, but because who she was before, who you know yourself to be, wasn’t all she was, she wasn’t just Ava’s daughter, she wasn’t just a Wicked child, she wasn’t just another experiment waiting to happen. She was Cleo, she was tough and fierce and resilient, you outgrew all that made you.”  
“I became something completely independent of Ava,” Cleo says.  
“Exactly.”


	5. You Infuriate Me

Teresa clicks her pen, three hours. She has been sat here with Minho for three hours. In that time, she has realised a few things. She is most definitely not being told certain things, whether it is Ava keeping them from her or Curie she cannot tell. But she knows that long absence often means someone is talking, and she isn’t wanted where they are. She also knows this means Ava is more than likely still concerned about the others, about Thomas and Cleo and about what they might do. It is sensible, Teresa can agree, to be concerned about them. But it has been some time now, and Cleo is yet to even be suspected as spotted. All the surveillance has brought up absolutely nothing, and she doesn’t know if that is a good thing or a very worrying one. Teresa would always rather be over concerned than under prepared, it has kept her alive so far. But with Cleo it is always hard to tell. She hadn’t seen her as a competitor until The Scorch, but now she understands that is what she is. She was never Ava’s daughter to Teresa, Cleo was always more Ava’s responsibility, but now, with the darkness Cleo tries to hide so clearly bubbling over, she is more of a threat than ever.

“You think they are coming for you, don’t you,” Teresa says aloud, trying to evoke some kind of reaction from Minho. Anything. “We haven’t seen anything from them in weeks, not a trace, maybe they just carried on, accepted their losses.”

“Cleo would never leave Marie,” Minho says. The first thing Minho has said directly to Teresa in weeks. She nods.

“Huh,” Teresa says. “You were there, you saw what happened with Cleo, how are you even sure she is alive?”

“She’s alive,” Minho says plainly. Minho knows Cleo is alive, he doesn’t need proof of that. He saw Cleo walk deeper into a building minutes before it exploded and turn up with only a cut on her arm. He saw Cleo walk out The Maze, with Marie on her arm, unphased. He saw Cleo take on cranks and Wicked alike. If he witnessed Cleo, gun in hand, against Gally, he knows she is alive.

“I guess she is vaguely like a cockroach in that regard,” Teresa says. “So very hard to kill.” Minho says nothing and Teresa rests her head on her arm, tired of it. “You know she might not even remember a damn thing, how can you have so much faith in her.”

“She wouldn’t forget Marie,” Minho says. “All the serum in the world, all the plotting, all the things you can take away from her, she would never, ever, forget Marie. That I know more than anything. And one thing I know about Cleo is as long as you have Marie, she will not stop coming for you, not for a moment, so don’t think I believe my friends are coming for me based on what I know about them. I know Thomas and Newt and Fry would do everything they can to help me, we are family, we are brothers. But even though I know that to be true, that isn’t my reassurance. No Teresa, my reassurance, my saving grace, is the fact you thought, you all thought, taking Marie away from Cleo would weaken her, but all you did was make yourselves an even more stupid target. She won’t let any single one of you get away with this. If you don’t fear her Teresa, you should.”

“I hope you’re right,” Curie says joining them both. Curie is using one hand to twist the ring she wears, around her finger, she isn’t even aware she is doing it. “I would love to speak to her. After all, she did let this happen, and I wonder what she has to say about that.” Minho looks at her, and her curiosity about Cleo is the most Marie he has seen on her face in a while. He doesn’t let it show, but it gives him something to hold onto.

“She’s immune,” Teresa says, as if she could hear the joy in Minho’s mind at Curie being interested in Cleo. “You view her as something you need to protect.”

“I view her as an asset, but I also know what threat she poses,” Curie says. “I am not like you, I am not clouded in my assessment.” Curie leans down to look at Minho. “We need to get him ready, we are moving again today.”

“Already?” Teresa asks. “Has there been a development?”

“Nothing you need concern yourself with,” Curie responds. “But him and the others need to be prepped.”

“I am not sure Aris is particularly up for movement,” Teresa says. Curie looks at her. “He…”

“Is he in danger?” she asks.

“We are all in danger,” Minho says. Curie looks at him and tilts her head.

“You are safe,” she says. “Currently.” She leaves without another word and walks down a long corridor to another set of doors. When she opens them, a few kids look up at her and she just walks past. Until she reaches her desired target.

Aris sits between Sonya and a very young boy. His eye is swollen and his lip split. She assesses him for a moment and he tries not to look at her. “Will you fight me too?” Curie asks.

Aris doesn’t look up, or answer. The answer is no, because for all the fact and all the knowledge of Curie, he can’t shake Cleo’s words, Cleo’s protection. Curie is not Marie, but any harm to Curie is harm to Marie, and he knows he cannot risk that. Curie on some level knows this, so she stays next to them both at least for transit, knowing that in keeping Aris from picking another fight, she is protecting him. That is, after all, her purpose.

Cleo catches her ring in her hair as she tries to move it from her face. “Shit,” she mutters trying to tug it out.

“That thing is a hazard,” Harriet laughs.

“I agree,” Cleo says. Once she has got it out of her hair she takes it off her hand and looks at it in the light.

“Where did you get it?” Harriet asks.

“I think,” Cleo says, looking at the twisted metal. “I made it.”

“No wonder it is dangerous, you make it out of fencing wire?” Brenda asks.

“That is exactly what she made it out of,” Newt says.

“Why?” Cleo asks.

“You found something broken and beautiful and you wanted to make it into something not broken and beautiful,” Newt says. Cleo puts the ring back on and just looks at it.

“There is more to that story,” Cleo says slowly, “isn’t there?”

“Yeah,” Newt admits. “A lot more, but I won’t do it justice.”

“When who do I ask?”

“No one,” Newt says. Cleo looks puzzled.

“No one?” she repeats back to him.

“No one,” Newt says. “Only you really know why you made those rings, no one else can explain it to you.”

“Rings?” Cleo asks.

“You made two,” Thomas says bringing Cleo some soup.

“One for me,” Cleo whispers. “And one for Marie.” The boys say nothing but share a look. Cleo looks at them both, “that wasn’t a guess, I knew that, like I knew it in my gut. That is a good sign, right?”

“Can you tell me what Marie looked like?” Thomas asks. Cleo shakes her head.

“I don’t remember her, I just remember a ghost of a feeling,” Cleo says. Newt laughs.

“There was a time you could have said that about me,” he says.

“I don’t doubt I probably did,” Cleo says. The two of them have not been around each other a lot recently, it is too hard for Newt to look at Cleo and hope she will become the girl he knows and loves, and it hurts Cleo too much to actually have Newt look at her for once instead of someone else, but only want to see someone else, someone she was supposed to me. He feels like he has lost her, and she feels like she lost her chance without even realising she had it.

“You are crazy, you know that,” Brenda tells Harriet.

“I wasn’t crazy, I was right,” Harriet insists. “We just had to find a way onto The Maze walls, that was the problem. From up there we could see everything, we weren’t at the danger level and if the route changed it didn’t matter. We could progress forward. But the walls were so tall.”

“So dangerous,” Cleo points out. “I had enough runners cause themselves issues trying to climb those walls.” Newt hadn’t crossed her mind until she said it and then a wave of sadness overcome her. All the betrayal, all the pain, hits her and she remembers something, running into The Maze with Thomas to help Minho with Alby. It’s fuzzy and some of it doesn’t make sense, but she remembers it. She remembers how mad Newt was at her, like she had done something unspeakable and how hypocritical that anger had felt. She tries so hard to hold onto the feeling, the remembering but it slips away leaving her with a deep rage in her stomach. Like she is fighting Newt all over again.

“You okay?” Brenda asks, noticing the scrunched nose and pursed lips.

“Yeah I am fine,” Cleo says.

“You don’t look it, you know you infuriate me when you try and pretend someyhing isn’t wrong,” Brenda says.

“I what?”

“You infuriate me.”

_-Flashback-_

_“You infuriate me,” Gally says.  
“Well join the shucking club Gally, and for the record you infuriate me too,” Cleo says stepping closer to him, but he doesn’t back down this time. “You ran in The Maze too.”  
“I ran after you!” he yells back. “If I hadn’t you wouldn’t have made it.”  
“I didn’t ask you to, you broke the rules of your own choice Gally, you are being a hypocrite,” she says.  
“I am following by your example, the outcome is worth the choices, right?” he asks. “And you made it back into The Glade, worth the rules being broken.”  
“Carefully Gally, you almost sound like you care,” Cleo says. Gally places his arm on the tree she is leaning against, leaning over her, he doesn’t look her in the eye.  
“Maybe I do, maybe I do care,” he says. “I care that you don’t seem to care what happens to you. You could have died, and for what?”_

“Cleo,” Brenda asks.

“Shush,” Cleo says.

“Don’t shush me-,”

“Shush!”

  
_“For my friends,” Cleo snaps.  
“You are so fast to act, you don’t ever think, do you consider what could be bad for you?” Gally asks.  
“I over consider according to you, I think about everything, I calculate my every move,” she mocks.  
“Except when you don’t, except when you act like a shank,” he says. She laughs.  
“You ran into The Maze, you grabbed my arm, and you told me to run, you didn’t let go, you didn’t think about how I would slow you down, so who is the shank?” she says.  
“You never consider the danger you put yourself in, can you make any good choices when you are so impulsive?” he asks. Cleo looks at him, she is filled with anger and hurt and complete betrayal. _

_“You think I am impulsive?” she asks.  
“Sometimes,” he says. “Sometimes all you do is consider your options and I respect that but sometimes I just don’t understand you.”  
“I don’t either,” she says.  
“Can you promise me something?” he asks. The moonlight is reflecting in his eyes and he looks angry but serious.  
“What?” she asks.  
“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, just for one day, give me a break,” he says._

“Cleo,” Brenda says.

“I’m remembering something,” Cleo manages.  
  


_“I can’t promise that,” she says. Her stomach starts to churn in a way she is familiar with but not like this, not this violent, not with Gally._

_“Why the hell not?” he asks, barely breathes length from her face now._  
_“Because I am going to do this,” she says grabbing his collar and kissing him. Gally pulls away and stares at her, and in the shock. Cleo must look flustered or concerned because Gally stares at her like she has never seen her before, and then without a second hesitation more, he kisses her again, and she lets him._

All of it, Thomas arriving, the fight with Newt, the first argument in the woods, it overwhelms her. Still no trace of Marie in her memory, but this, this strikes her. Because if this was real. If this was her memory. How could she have done what they’ve told her she did? How could she have killed Gally, when she so clearly loved him?


	6. All Of It

Cleo doesn’t tell a soul what she remembered about Gally. Partially because it doesn’t matter to any single one of them, it doesn’t change their lives in any way, and they are not entitled to know it. Partially because Gally is gone and telling people something about the past when it is only about the dead doesn’t really feel like it would do much good. And partially because Cleo feels an odd obligation, an odd requirement, like her old self was asking her not to, like she had to keep her secret, for other Cleo. Even though she was other Cleo and she didn’t have to keep any secrets she didn’t want to keep. But she felt like she should. She felt like she had to. Like she was supposed to keep this one. So, she does. She plays the kiss over and over in her mind, and wonders how she told no one. How no one knew about she and Gally. It must have been a secret, it must have been something. There are pieces she is missing that she knows must answer those questions and in a selfish way she is more motivated then ever to get herself back on track. She needs to remember, all of it. Not for Newt or the others. Not for Marie. Not for old Cleo and the justice she deserves. But for Gally. For her. For her peace of mind.

_“We aren’t done here,” he says before walking away.  
“I make him so nervous,” Cleo laughs to herself.  
“He fancies you,” Minho says tapping her on the shoulder.  
“No, he doesn’t,” Cleo calls back to him._

“Minho is almost certainly being kept with Curie, everything we know about her programming, everything we know about Wicked suggest that,” Vince says.

“But also we have to suspect they will assume we are coming for them,” Thomas points out.

“Together they are a bigger target,” Harriet agrees with Thomas.

“But they have underestimated us plenty of times before,” Brenda says.

“They underestimated us, Wicked,” Thomas points out. “Not Curie. Curie has Marie’s memories, Curie knows what we are like, she has had so much time to absorb information, calculate what we would do. Curie won’t be so easily tricked.”

“She is their greatest asset,” Fry says.

“And we are missing ours,” Newt says from the corner.

“Cleo is our best player,” Brenda agrees, “but she is making progress. Curie wanted to wound us. Curie wanted to make us weak, that’s why she went after Cleo. She may not see Cleo as a threat to her control in the same way we do, but she saw her as a threat to the mission, to Wicked, enough that they wanted to wipe her memory clean.”

“But Ava thought wiping her memory made her stronger, made her better,” Thomas says.

“When she had Marie, when she had The Glade and time to grow and to adapt and to become, she doesn’t have that now, Ava knows that, in hoping she removed her memories she hopes Cleo stood no chance of getting even close to what she was in the time frame they have,” Newt says. “Do we even know if she can still shoot?”

“A gun, for sure, we do range practice all the time,” Brenda says.

“What about her bow?” Fry asks.

“She lost it back in The Scorch,” Brenda says.

“She can make a new one, like she did in The Glade, we can assess her skills, she was always more willing to shoot a bow, and muscle memory, it could connect her more to her other self,” Fry says. Brenda smiles.

“That, actually isn’t a bad idea at all,” Thomas says.

“You sound surprised,” Fry says.

“We can’t be reliant on Cleo, we need a plan that works with or without her, else we are royally fucked before we begin,” Vince says.

“Give her more credit,” Jorge says. “That girl will surprise you more than she does anything else.”

“I hope so,” Vince says. “I really hope so.”

“You trusted Mary,” Harriet says. “When I look at Cleo all I see is Mary.”

“And I see Ava, you were all impressed, maybe inspired by the trick Cleo tried to pull with Wicked, and maybe if it worked, you’d feel differently, but that gun to Ava’s chest, that wasn’t an applause moment, it is a concern,” Vince says.

“She was trying to protect everyone,” Newt says.

“She was trying to get revenge,” Vince says. “I want Cleo back because I want this to work, I want to do it right, I want to do what Mary would have wanted. But I also am not blind to the potential problems with having that Cleo over this Cleo in the way you guys are. You see this Cleo as a problem to be fixed, I see both of them that way.”

“This Cleo isn’t a problem, she is just as much Cleo as the other Cleo, she just has different memories,” Brenda says.

“Different memories and different loyalties,” Vince says.

“You are in the wrong room Vince to try and question Cleo,” Harriet says sinisterly.

“I am not saying I don’t think she is our asset, our ally, I believe she is, I saw her protect Brenda, I saw her with Mary, I saw what she wanted and what she would do, but I also saw her on the rocks with Teresa and Marie before the attack, I saw her with Ava and the way she pulled that trigger. I don’t doubt she is your family and your friend and therefore your ally. But I think she also has a tie to revenge that runs deep. I just hope not deeper than her sense.”

“You talk about her like she is some criminal,” Jorge says.

“We are talking about the girl who killed one of you before, aren’t we?” Vince says.

“Gally was different, he had lost his mind, he was going to kill Thomas or Teresa,” Newt says.

“So, Cleo took care of it,” Vince says. “Cleo, not you, not him, Cleo. Killing someone takes something out of you, she may not remember what she did, but you want her to, and I think that hurt, it is anger in that Cleo you want back so badly. And anger is unpredictable.”

“We are all angry Vince,” Thomas says. “I would have shot Ava given half a chance.”

“And maybe you would have succeeded” Vince says. “All I am saying is what I’ve been saying from the beginning. We can’t rely on Cleo for a solution, we need one that works with or without her. Or we don’t stand a chance.”

“Do you remember much about your mother?” Thomas asks. Cleo is staring at the sky. “You talk about your father so much, I know he was a good guy and Ava is… Ava. But do you just remember him more, or-,”

“I don’t like to waste my time thinking about Ava,” Cleo says. “She was never very motherly. Not to me. I had dads hair and dads eyes. Often people thought I was Mary’s daughter, not Ava’s. She didn’t connect with me. I was soft and I was a daddies girl, and she wanted be to be strong and I would cry at sad stories. Then she had Bessie. Bessie, the perfect accident. She looked like Ava, faint blonde hair, tight little curls, those big baby blue eyes. So at least Ava could pretend better with Bessie. But Bessie was like me and dad, soft and sweet. She was barely more than a toddler, what else was she supposed to be? She never through a tantrum, she never made a fuss over things, but she could cry and the sound would damn near break your heart. Mother called me Cleopatra, hoping I’d have the resolve and the determination to win, but I ended up a closer reading ‘pride of the father.’ I think she didn’t mean to, but she resented me for that. And when my father died, it only got worse. She found Teresa and Teresa was the daughter she had always hoped I would be, and Bessie, was hers. And I was alone.”

“I don’t really remember your sister that much,” Thomas admits. Cleo nods.

“I have more memories than you,” Cleo says. “She wasn’t important to you Thomas, I don’t expect you to remember her.”

“Do you think she is okay?” Thomas asks.

“I haven’t a clue,” Cleo says. “Mother didn’t expect her to live very long, she was born sick, and with the world as it was, her hope for getting better was so low. Her name means pledged to god, I didn’t know that when I called her Bessie, I just knew it sounded nice. Mother didn’t expect her to live, so she let me, and then Bessie got stronger, Bessie got better. It was like I called the universe out on that one, my little angelic sister, the miracle daughter.”

“Have you noticed how I asked you about your mother and you’ve managed to talk about your sister?” Thomas asks. Cleo laughs.

“Yeah, I do that,” Cleo admits.

“I know, you used to do the same thing when I asked you about Newt,” Thomas says. “You’d deflect away, scared to talk about him.”

“Why?” Cleo asks.

“He hurt you, I figure, you deflect away from talking about people who hurt you,” Thomas says.

“Newt would never mean to hurt me,” Cleo thinks about the incident. “I just took it personally.”

“And you wouldn’t talk about it,” Thomas says.

“It isn’t that I don’t want to talk about Ava,” Cleo says. “I just have nothing to say.”

“How about, she didn’t know you were immune and she sent you into the death trap anyway, she was an appalling excuse for a mother and you hope she burns,” Thomas says. Cleo nods.

“That seems to cover it just fine,” she says. They are quiet for a moment. “Thomas?”

“Yes Cleo?”

“Tell me about her,” she says turning to lay on her side and look at him. “Tell me about Marie.”

“Before or after?” he asks.

“All of it, everything you can, just tell me about her,” Cleo says.

“Happily,” Thomas says, “but why?”

“Because she means so much to you, and if she means even a tenth of what she means to you, to me, I want to remember her, I want to remember her more than I can explain and it scares me. The idea that she could make me into that person everyone says I am, and I am scared to be that girl, I wont lie Thomas. I don’t think I want to be who I was. But tell me about Marie, make me believe it is worth being scared for a little while. Tell me what made me love her so much.”

“What you need to know about Marie, first and I know you’ve probably been told this by everyone, and me, at least ten times already, but it is important,” Thomas says.

“I’m listening,” Cleo says.

“She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She really wouldn’t. She is so gentle, so kind, even to her own detriment. Before when we were working for Wicked, when we thought we were saving and changing the world, she was so hopeful, so delicate…”

Thomas talks for maybe two hours and Cleo barely interrupts at all. She just lets him talk. He tells her about before, in the lab. He tells her how much he adored her, from a distance, from less of a distance. He tells her about the dedication Marie had, the hope, the fight from a girl who couldn’t even raise her voice. He tells her about how she, Cleo, was the tipping point. The last nail in the coffin of Wicked and all they have done, the last thing that Marie had to suffer before she truly committed to giving up on Wicked, to seeing them for what they were. He tells her about how Marie used to sneak around and how Thomas filled in her place when they took her from him. He talks about her beauty and her kindness in equal measure. She watches his eyes changes as he talks about her, and she feels like she is learning above love again by watching him talk. He tells her about what he saw on those monitors, about the way Cleo took to her like a house on fire, the way Cleo protected her like family and loved her like it too. Even without her memories Cleo knew Marie was worth it then. He tells her about the singing and the way Marie became a med-jack and how he felt that even without her memories she knew somewhere down that helping people, protecting them, fixing them, saving them, was always all she wanted to do. Marie the pure of heart and soft of soul. Marie the girl who saved Cleo from her darkness. The girl who Thomas fought big bad Wicked to try and get back to, to try and get justice for. Marie, the girl who hid her feelings about Newt for years to try and give Cleo a glimpse of happiness. The girl who would always put herself last. The girl who patched up Cleo’s wounds when she was clumsy or angry. Marie, the girl who not only saved Cleo from loneliness in The Glade, but saved her from herself. Marie who got lost in The Maze following the sound of a child crying, Marie who Cleo loved so much she walked into that Maze without fear to find. Sweet, dear Marie. And although Cleo couldn’t remember a thing as he spoke, she wanted to.

“She was a brunette, wasn’t she?” Cleo asks.

“You remember that?” Thomas asks her.

“Not exactly, but in my dreams, sometimes,” Cleo says, “I see these… beautiful brown curls, and I don’t see a memory or a face, I don’t hear a voice and I don’t think it means much. But I remember an outline, a shadow. It’s Marie, isn’t it?”

“The last thing you said,” Thomas says. “When Curie got you, when she took your memories, was ‘I won’t forget her, not again.’ And not a part of me doesn’t believe that. You loved her Cleo, more than any of us, maybe more than all of us. I don’t think even Wicked can entirely rip that away from you. Not entirely. She meant far too much.”


	7. If It Calms You

“The City?” Teresa asks. “You mean that?”

“The Last City,” Ava corrects her. “Yes in a few weeks.”

“Is that safe? There are so many of them,” Teresa says.

“We will be ready, we can’t put it off much longer, in the walls of The Last City we will be much safer, but out here, we can only move around so much,” Ava says.

“We decimated The Right Arm, Ava,” Janson says.

“But the others are still out there,” Curie says. “And they won’t stop coming.”

“None of your opinions on this matter change anything,” Ava says. “It is happening, that is all.”

“I am head of security, don’t you think it is in my job description to assess the risk in this?” Janson asks.

“We could give you a second gun, if it calms you,” Curie says. Janson doesn’t look at her, but inside he is seething.

“I don’t need another gun Curie,” Janson says. “I need to assess the risk.”

“I am sure you can handle it Janson, it is your job, and as Curie has pointed out, your biggest threat is a bunch of kids, can you handle that?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then no more questions.”

“Teresa betrayed us, I am not surprised about that,” Cleo says repeating back the facts Thomas is giving her again and again. Like it might jog a memory. They both know it won’t. But Newt can’t handle having conversations with Cleo anymore, she is enough like the Cleo he loves that he wants to, but too much different for it to not hurt. So, he avoids her. He knows it is cowardly. But he doesn’t know what else to do because she still looks at him the way she always has, and that is a reminder that there was a time he can’t remember where he never even noticed her and she lives there in her mind. So, Thomas spends a lot of time trying to help her remember.

The rest of her time she spends with Harriet and Brenda. Frypan refers to them as a chaos waiting to happen. But Harriet trades her confidence and skills for Brenda’s humour, and Cleo teaches them both how to use a bow. In return they don’t look at her like she is broken, they don’t talk to her like she needs to be fixed and they stop asking her if and when and what she remembers. They just treat her as Cleo, so she teaches them how to use a bow. A bow that she took days to make and get it right. It isn’t her bow she made in The Glade, not by a long shot, the wood is darker, and the bow string is much more controlled. It isn’t her bow, not the one she knows, but it is something she made with both her old and new memories and she just has to accept that. Brenda still prefers her gun and with good reason, Harriet is determined to get the bow down, even if all her skills stack against her, she doesn’t stop trying. 

“Careful,” Cleo laughs as Harriet misses, again. “You know-,”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Harriet says. Cleo smiles at her.

“What would Sonya say?” Cleo asks. Harriet scowls at her. “Call it a cheap shot if you want, but answer my question.”

“She would say I don’t have to be perfect at everything to be worthy,” Harriet says.

“That is adorable,” Brenda says from her place sat on a rock.

“You just need to steady, you are unsteady making the arrow travel unsteady. You are already fighting the elements in this situation, you need to be stronger with your vision than the wind is at knocking your arrow out,” Cleo says, pointing with a flat palm forward, into the wind.

“I don’t understand how you taught yourself this, at all,” Brenda says. Cleo shrugs.

“I actually don’t know, none of my memories exactly add that up, I definitely didn’t learn in the lab, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin guessing I figured it out alone in The Glade, I probably just had some, half baked idea of what I was doing from something I read in a book, I don’t know what book, but I have learned it is probably best to try not to over analyse the tiny things in my life that don’t add up, when I have much bigger problems,” Cloe says.

“Can I ask something that is likely a little out of bounds?” Brenda asks.

“When do you ask permission for that?” Harriet asks focusing on the bow.

“Go ahead,” Cleo says.

“Why do you think it is a good idea to keep me around when any day I could become something that could take the reason you are doing this all away from you?” Brenda asks. Both Harriet and Cleo stop what they are doing immediately and turn to her.

“What?” Cleo asks.

“Newt, your friends,” Brenda says. “I am a ticking time bomb, and we don’t know who can survive me and who can’t.”

Cleo may not remember meeting Brenda or what she did to save her, but she knows Brenda is infected. She knows Mary saved her with Thomas’s blood, but it was more of a time situation than a fix. And her time is running out. It should have run out a long time ago. “Brenda, we don’t know what will happen with you,” Cleo says.

“We do,” Brenda says. “We know exactly what will happen, we just don’t know when.”

“Brenda, we have Thomas, we have Cleo, we have me,” Harriet says.

“And we have no way to make it, I am running out of time, you both know that,” Brenda says.

“No,” Cleo says taking the bow off Harriet and pulling the string tight. “We don’t.” The arrow hits something that runs across the landscape. Cleo didn’t even see it coming, it just appeared and then got hit.

“Shit, did you just find dinner?” Brenda asks. Harriet moves over to look.

“It’s a rabbit,” she says. Cleo feels cold, even in the sunlight.

“I didn’t mean to hit it,” she says.

“It doesn’t look infected,” Harriet continues.

“I didn’t mean to,” Cleo says.

“Cleo, don’t forget the world we leave in,” Brenda says. “We have to make hard choices.”

“No,” Cleo says. “Look, I know what you are trying to do, but I am not having any of this, prepping me for a goodbye, I am not. Brenda, we don’t know what comes next, you should already be showing signs, you aren’t. Every day you look the same, I feel relieved, and you feel more worried and I understand that, I may not remember everything, but I have seen the cranks, I know what you are scared is coming. But I won’t have it, I won’t have this sadness from you. You are strong, and we are going to figure it out. Take my blood. Even better, raid Wicked, take from them what they took from us. But you aren’t dying on me Brenda, you simply aren’t.”

Harriet holds up the rabbit and the blood makes Cleo shake. “Cleo?” Harriet asks.

Cleo remembers Mary being shot. She remembers the sound of the gun. She remembers the feeling in her chest. She remembers seeing Mary on the ground. And then she remembers something else.

_Cleo, sat on the floor, slowly being soaked in Gally’s blood, with his body on her lap._

_Cleo holds Gally as he looks up at her, unable to speak._

_“Gally,” she whispers. “No, no, you’re-,”  
“Cleo,” he manages. “I…”  
“I’m sorry,” Cleo whispers as Gally starts to fade. “I am sorry.”  
“I…,” he tries again but he doesn’t manage it.  
“But I couldn’t let you hurt them. I just couldn’t” Cleo says._

“Cleo,” Harriet says. “Cleo sing.” The instruction breaks through her mind.

“Cleo sing,” Brenda agrees. “Sing if it calms you, how many times…”

So, she does, hands shaking, unable to understand what she is remembering. No Marie to ground her. No Marie to make it make sense. She just sings.


	8. In Past Tense

“Marie was the perfect damsel, and Curie is the perfect weapon, you know they will use that against you, it is clear in her design,” Vince says.

“You need to stop talking about her like she isn’t a real person,” Thomas says. “Marie is real, Marie wasn’t a Wicked fabrication, Marie is herself. Curie is-,”

“A virus,” Cleo says. It is the first time they have left her sit at the table for a conversation like this and part of her wants to stay quiet, be good, so she isn’t sent away. But then again, she has so much of other Cleo in her now, that she doesn’t really take well to being ignored. “When they realised they wanted Marie gone, to put her in The Maze, they had two options, to hope she died or to find a use for her. So, they did both, they put Curie in, as a safety net, as a secret weapon. That is what we know, right?”

“What we know is very limited,” Vince says.

“Because Cleo knew more than anyone, right?” Cleo asks.

“Yeah, and in trying to protect Marie,” Thomas says.

“She told no one,” Cleo says.

“It wasn’t all on you though,” Brenda says. “Some of us noticed things were wrong, we should have said something,” she glances at Newt who is being his quiet self, “but we didn’t either.”

“We all owed her something, mostly loyalty, but some of us had deeper roots than others,” Fry says.

“Have,” Cleo says. “Some of us have, deeper roots. I know almost everyone wants to protect Marie in this room, I know that there are very few things that we wouldn’t do, to ensure we get our girl back. You might not understand my stance without my memories, because neither do I, but I don’t have to remember what she meant to me to understand that she meant something to me. So, we have deep roots. Don’t talk about her in past tense, I already have enough trouble with people talking about me like that.”

Curie isn’t sure if her own self has just grown louder, more into a person than she was before, or if Marie has fallen so quiet in the back of her mind, it is almost like she isn’t there at all. Ava has suggested time and time again, that she is removable, and she is, Curie knows that to be true. But she is also needed. Without Marie, there are so many things that don’t work. One of the surest things Curie knows is as long as Marie is here, they will always come for her, they will always protect her, they will always fight for her. That is Marie’s purpose, that is her use. Curie needs that for everything to run smoothly. Especially for Cleo.

Although Curie likes the quiet, the absence of the voice in her head, Marie’s voice. It is louder perhaps, than her screaming. Because she is there, like she needs to be. But she is oh so faint.

Cleo, left to her own devices lays down on her bed and does the same thing she has done every night for the last three weeks. She takes off Mary’s jacket, she takes the gun from under her shirt and places it next to her, and she one hand on her necklace and the other hand outstretched in front of her, looking at the ring she made for her, to match the one she made for the girl she loved, lost and forgot, tries to talk to a memory. “Marie,” she says, focusing on the ring. “Marie.”

She tells herself the stories that the others have told her. She tells herself about the day Marie came up in the box, she tells herself about the fireside that night, and the way Marie looked when she drank Gally’s drink. She tells herself about Marie’s laugh and even though she doesn’t remember it at all, she can almost hear it.

Nothing she does can conjure an image of Marie, no matter how hard she tries. She only just catches glimpses, like a ghost playing hide and seek in the corners of her mind.

Once she has resigned herself to giving up for the evening. She turns her head and that’s when she sees him for the first time since her memories were taken. Gally, stood by the tent entrance, she blinks and he is gone and she wonders if she was too tired and she was just seeing memory layered on reality. She doesn’t remember what she went through after Gally. She doesn’t remember much when it comes to Gally. She remembers all up to their first kiss in The Glade, and then she draws a long blank until she is holding him as he dies, and then nothing again. A cruel way to remember someone, especially when she remembers him at the lab clearer than she remembers anyone else.

Gally was her friend, when no one else was. She doesn’t remember Marie, but she can’t imagine that from the memories she has of the lab, she was close for long. Cleo used to cry a lot at the lab, late at night when no one was around, when she thought no one would hear her. But Gally did. Gally would make sure his door didn’t lock at night so when the lab fell quiet, he could walk down the corridor and lean on the outside of Cleo’s door, talking to her in the dark, making the bad feelings go away. He would listen to her talk about her bad dreams, and he would tell her that she wasn’t all the things her mother said she was. How she never realised all that Gally meant to her then, was the only thing she felt she had in common with the Cleo she was trying to bring back. And it scares her.

_-Flashback-_

_“I should really tell a medical professional,” Cleo says, cleaning the cut on Gally’s nose with a wet cloth._

_“Like who?” Gally asks wincing._

_“I’m sorry,” Cleo says, laughing out of nervousness._

_“It’s okay,” Gally says, eyes on her._

_“I don’t like hurting you,” Cleo says. He smiles._

_“You aren’t hurting me,” he says._

_“Your wincing, says otherwise,” Cleo says, pulling the cloth away to clean the blood. “How did you get into a fight anyway?”_

_“You don’t really want to know that,” Gally says. Cleo rolls her eyes._

_“Boys and their pride,” Cleo says opening a draw to look for plaster stitches. “Bright side, your nose isn’t broken.”_

_“You sure?” he asks._

_“If you want clarity, let me take you to someone with training,” Cleo says._

_“You mean the fourteen-year-old with shaky hands and a horrified look on her face isn’t a medical professional?” Gally teases._

_“Shut up,” Cleo says. “I am just worried about it healing.”_

_“I am not,” Gally says. “What difference will a scar make?”_

_“I don’t know,” Cleo says. “Personally, I think you would still look handsome, but it depends on who you are trying to impress.”_

_“I only ever try to impress you,” Gally says. Cleo smiles, she thinks he is joking, she always does._

_“Then nothing to worry about.”_


	9. I’m Sorry Tommy

Minho looks at the door. It has been days since he saw Curie. Was this a new kind of torture? Seeing her was one kind of painful, looking into the eyes of the girl he loves and knowing it isn’t her looking back, it hurt down to pit of his stomach. But not seeing her at all was a different kind of pain, a worrying kind. At least as long as Curie was safe, he knew, to some extent, Marie was also safe. As long as Marie was safe, he knew he could keep going. Keep planning. Keep ignoring it all. As long as Marie was safe. Marie was all that mattered after all, then and now.

Janson looks at the plans again. He can see all the possibilities, all the places this could all go wrong. But he doesn’t want to have this argument with Ava. Not again. So, he accepts that between him, his men and Curie, the likelihood for failure is very low. Not negligible but very low.   
Not having any intel on Cleopatra’s state of being is a worrying factor, Cleopatra in her entirety is a worrying factor. Especially when it comes to Curie.   
“Curie,” Janson says, calling to her from another room.  
“Yes,” she responds.   
“Give me your assessment on Cleopatra Cooper,” he says. Curie nods.   
“Since entering The Maze Cleopatra adapted and overcame and grew at a rate no one at Wicked predicted, she defied both medical procedure with her memory recall and survival expectations in their entirety. Cleopatra, originally estimated nine months survival in The Maze, not only survived but got out. Then furthering to escape from your own care into The Scorch and actively avoid your capture for prolonged time, despite having little to no assets and barely an assistance. She has shown a resilience and determination unexpected from her pre-Maze counterpart. And now with unknown amounts of memory and little to know way of knowing her physical state of being, she should be considered a high threat,” Curie says.  
“Except?” Janson asks.   
“Except she isn’t, she is a problematic factor,” Curie says, “but she is also at her weakest if she comes for us, because we have Marie, and Marie is her more clear and singular weakness.”  
“So, you aren’t concerned?” Janson asks.   
“It would be foolish to not see Cleopatra as a concern, I am just not letting a fear of her cloud any prospects,” Curie says.  
“You aren’t programmed to fear,” Janson says, a layer in his tone that would be threatening if it wasn’t at Curie.  
“I don’t fear, you do,” Curie says. “I just see things as they are, and they are complex.”  
“How can Cleopatra both be a big concern and worth little note?” Janson asks.  
“The same way I can be both Curie and Marie,” Curie says. “It depends entirely on what her motivations are.”  
“We don’t know, because we don’t know what happened to her” Janson says.  
“Exactly, so she both is and isn’t a threat, so you treat her accordingly.”

“You are just going to ignore her forever?” Thomas asks.  
“That’s what she tried to do with me,” Newt says.  
“That isn’t fair and you know it Newt,” Thomas says. “Because that wasn’t this Cleo, that was the Cleo that you want back so bad that you are ignoring this Cleo. Pick a side, you can’t ignore Cleo because she isn’t the girl you want her to be or you can’t punish her for not being that girl and justify it by actions the other Cleo did. One or the other. You can’t have both.”  
“Are you going to treat Curie the same?” Newt asks, and as soon as he says it he regrets it. He knows he is way out of line and he doesn’t know why he said what he said. But before he can apologise Thomas is already talking.  
“You know, I was waiting for that,” Thomas says. “You can be a prick sometimes Newt.”  
“I’m sorry Tommy,” he says. “I didn’t mean it, I just-,”  
“You’re frustrated, you’re mad, you’re in pain? Join the fucking club Newt,” Thomas says. “You don’t get to take it out on Cleo and you certainly don’t get to take it out on me.”  
“I’m sorry,” he says again.   
“You forget Newt, I want Cleo back too, and I know it is different for you, but different and worse aren’t mutually exclusive,” Thomas says. Newt says nothing. “You know Newt, what do you think happens when she gets her memories back?”  
“If.”  
“When,” Thomas says an anger in this voice now. “Do you know what happens when? Because I don’t, but I also don’t think all the lab memories crawl back into a box, I think she will have them too, and she will have the memories of the last few months, and all the ignoring her, all the pain and sadness she feels right now, that doesn’t go away when your Cleo comes back, it is still her, it is still her life right now. This doesn’t all get erased if she remembers, surely with every bit of her you get back, you realise that, and you might torture yourself over the idea that this Cleo, the one sat around the campfire with Brenda and Harriet, the one trying so hard to be what we need her to be, this Cleo, doesn’t remember her best friend nearly dying in The Maze. This Cleo doesn’t remember putting a bullet in Gally so no one else had to suffer. This Cleo doesn’t remember so much of the pain we all do. And I know all that made her Cleo, but don’t be selfish for a moment and remember what you are wanting from her. I am sorry that she is taking her time to remember all the things we would rather forget ourselves, and I am sorry if that means she isn’t who you want her to be right now. But she is still Cleo. She still cares, and fights and loves the way Cleo does, and if you can’t see that you are choosing to not see it.”  
“Mate,” Newt starts. Thomas shakes his head.  
“I- just talk to her Newt. Because you can,” Thomas says. “Unlike some of us, you can at least talk to the girl you claim to love.”

“The immunes seem to be doing well, positive progress,” Ava says. Teresa nods.   
“Minho in particular,” Curie says. “Maybe it is his circumstances, but I believe he is more responsive than any of the others.”  
“Ironic due to his resilience,” Teresa says.  
“Not at all,” Curie responds. “I think his need to fight back, his fear of giving in, is exactly why he is responding better.”  
“And then there is you,” Ava says, looking at Curie. Curie nods.  
“And then there is me.”

“Hello Minho,” Curie says. Unsure if she is real or a dream he watches her for a moment.  
“Marie,” he says. Curie doesn’t respond, she doesn’t shake her head or correct him like she usually would, she just waits. Minho lets out a sigh. “Not Marie.”  
“You got me there,” Curie says.   
“Why are you here?” Minho asks.   
“To check on you, I have a duty of care” Curie says.  
“I cannot tell if you are cruel or if you are almost unhuman,” Minho says. Curie pauses on the question.  
‘Cruel,’ she can hear Marie say in the back of her mind. But Curie disagrees. She doesn’t believe she is cruel. She is just doing what she is ordered to do, she is fulfilling her purpose.   
“You don’t even know, do you?” Minho asks.   
“I doubt it really matters,” Curie says.   
“That has been your answer to a lot of things lately hasn’t it?” Minho coughs. “I wonder how much actually does matter, and you just aren’t capable of realising it yet.”


	10. Flashback

_-Flashback-_

_Marie sits in the grass of The Glade, she is talking to Chuck and Chuck is listening, eyes wide and curious. He is still new and so young. Minho is watching them both from his place next to Newt. Newt is talking and he has been for a while but Minho stopped paying attention a while ago, he doesn’t even realise he isn’t listening to Newt until Newt knocks him on the head with a piece of wood._

_“Why do you ask me questions mate if you don’t listen to the answers?” Newt asks. Minho drags his eyes away from Marie to apologise._

_“Sorry, I was just…”_

_“Staring,” Newt says._

_“Yeah,” Minho says, he can’t hide it so there isn’t much point in lying about it._

_“Don’t let Alby catch you,” Newt says, “or Cleo for that matter, she is likely more dangerous.”_

_“You know I know better,” Minho says. “Rules are rules.”_

_“And Cleo is Cleo.”_

_“She most certainly is.” But Minho still looks back at her, and Marie is now looking at the flowers Chuck has given her, and she is smiling. She looks up and meets his eye and her smile broadens and his breath gets caught in his throat._

_“Hey Minho,” she waves, “Newt.”_

_Newt nods a hello back and Minho nearly loses his balance in trying to wave. Marie giggles and turns back to Chuck, a blush on her cheeks that even Minho can see from the distance. “Eyes off my girl Minho,” Cleo jokes walking behind him on her way to meet Marie._

_“I wasn’t,” Minho is quick to defend._

_“She’s mine,” Cleo mouths with a smirk. Newt smiles at her but Cleo doesn’t smile back, she just rolls her eyes at Minho’s embarrassed face and rushes to Marie. Despite knowing Cleo in her entirety, a girl of her word and having enough reason to be afraid of her. He watches them still, as Cleo puts a daisy in Chuck’s curls and watches as he shakes it out. She laughs and Minho watches the way Marie smiles differently when Cleo laughs, a smile that shared in Cleo’s joy in a way she doesn’t smile at anyone else._

_“Are you actually going to help Minho, or are you going to just stand there watching the girls braid flowers into each other’s hair?” Newt asks._

_“Is that actually a choice I get to make or?”_

_“Minho.”_

_“Fine, fine.”_

_-Flashback-_

_“Do you remember?” Gally asks leaning on the door. He can hear Cleo crying, like the night before. She is quieter today, more aware of it. But Gally always listens out, just in case. Even if no one else hears her, he always wants to be there if she needs someone, so he listens even on the nights there is nothing to hear. Even when she sleeps soundly and doesn’t wake up once. Even on the days when she goes to bed happy. He just wants to make sure. He wants to know that she isn’t alone. And he hopes she knows that too. Cleo will never be alone as long as Gally is around. He will make sure of that._

_“Not really,” Cleo says, the sadness in her voice giving herself away._

_“You’ve been crying,” he says. “Surely you remember something?”_

_“No,” Cleo says._

_“You don’t have to tell me Cleo, you don’t have to tell me anything, not ever,” Gally says, “I won’t make you. I just… I want you to know you can talk to me.”_

_“You don’t talk much,” Cleo says. “You prefer to fight.”_

_Gally taps his head slightly on the door, he can’t argue with her. He does have a tendency towards anger, even if he tries not to. He tries his best not to. But lately it’s been harder._

_“You weren’t always so angry,” Cleo says._

_“And you weren’t always so sad.”_

_“I guess that is true,” Cleo admits. In the silence she moves from her bed to lean on the door, almost listening out to hear where Gally is exactly. She can see his shadow, from the corridor light, the low green light they use at night-time. From what she can tell, he is on the other side of the door just like her, leaning on the reinforced metal. She places her palm flat on the door, wondering. “What changed?”_

_“I don’t know,” Gally lies. “You never used to have nightmares this bad, even after your dad.”_

_“I think I dream of him,” Cleo says, “and you think that would be nice, to see him again, but it isn’t, it is awful.”_

_“Is he…”_

_“Always, he is always not himself.”_

_“Are you sure it is a dream?” Gally asks. “Not a memory.”_

_“I am sure,” Cleo says. “I never saw him like that.”_

_“Do you remember anything more because of the dreams?” he asks._

_“No,” she whispers, “it is all still a big empty blank in my head. I can’t remember what happened at all.”_

_-Flashback-_

_“Marie,” Minho says, “what are you doing?”_

_“Cleo said I could try,” Marie says looking at the fire she is failing to light. “But she walked off, and now I am confused, she makes it look so easy.”_

_“She has a way of doing that,” Minho admits. “You should see the way she convinces Alby, it is like she was born to convince him, I haven’t seen anyone sway Alby the way Cleo does.”_

_“Cleo has a way with people,” Marie says. Minho assist her and she looks at the fire, which finally fully catches and she looks a mix of confused and proud that makes Minho smile. “My hero,” Marie says._

_“It was all you Marie, all you,” Minho says. She laughs._

_“You are kind but not honest,” she says. He looks at her and she looks like she wants to ask something but is reluctant to._

_“Marie, are you alright?” he asks._

_“I,” she stumbles, unsure of what to say or how to say it. “I don’t,” she tries a smile but it doesn’t over her stumbling. Minho, not wanting to see her look sad but also not knowing how to talk about it, simply pulls her into a hug. To his surprise it is exactly what Marie needed. She loses herself in his embrace for a moment and when he lets her go, she is smiling again. “Thank you, Minho, I really needed that.”_

_“Any time Ma, any time.”_

_She looks and her eyes meet Cleo who is talking to Ben on the way back over to the fire. “Sorry, didn’t mean to abandon you there, Ma,” Cleo says. “This one,” she shoves his arm playfully, “is useless without me.”_

_“Aren’t we all?” Marie jokes. She looks at Minho and even though he knows the rules and the life and that she probably isn’t aware at all about how fast his heart is going, he doesn’t feel like a lost boy for a moment. Not with her eyes on him. He feels found._

Brenda is talking a little fast and little loud and Jorge is watching her, with each day that passes he looks more and more alive, and it is because Brenda isn’t getting worse, if anything she is getting better, and no one wants to say anything because they don’t want to jinx it. Brenda won’t say anything because she won’t let herself have that kind of hope, she has placed herself on the list of lost souls before anyone even said about coming to collect. Harriet is tapping her leg over and over, the thought of what is to come playing over and over in her head. Finally, a chance, finally a moment, and she is impatient. Thomas and Newt are nowhere to be seen, and most evenings lately that has been the case, the others have tried not to think about it, more or less for Cleo’s sake. Frypan in that regard picks up the slack, talking more and more to fill any silence left behind.

Cleo is staring at the fire, the way it flickers, and she can see The Glade, she can see them all bar one, the singing and the fighting and the atmosphere of The Glade so clear in her mind she can almost smell the grass. She twists her ring around her finger, and the panic sets in. There is a chance this is as much as she could ever remember, there is a chance this is as good as she gets, and it scares her. She feels her hand shake and she sighs.

“You hear a lot of stories,” she whispers to herself, barely audible. “About sailors and their sport.”

She catches herself on the twisted metal on her ring and she winces. She looks at her hand and it happens, slowly, like the way the tide pulls back before it crashes onto the rocks. She doesn’t see her face, she doesn’t hear her voice, but she feels her presence. She knows that she was there even if she can’t see it in her mind.

_“A lot of what I do, I do out of love for you Ma, it is my reason to live, most days the only reason. I do a lot of things because I think about you, and you only. But this isn’t just a you situation Ma, yes, I would never be with him if I thought for a second it would hurt you, I couldn’t. I couldn’t bare it. But I also can’t be with him knowing that I would choose you, again and again, if I had to, over him. That isn’t fair on him either. Gally is proof that it doesn’t matter if I love someone, because I love you more. So before you try to blame yourself for this, know it isn’t just you I am considering in this. It isn’t fair on him either. I’m a mess. I let myself fall in love to distract myself from being in love Marie, I am no good for him, not even a little bit. But you, you are.”_

Cleo still didn’t understand a lot, she didn’t have her memories of Marie and she didn’t know if she ever would. But now she knows one things, one concrete thing. That was her voice and her words, and she was talking to Marie.


	11. I Was Dreaming

The maps are laid out across the table, pins and pieces all over the place. Vince leans on the table, both elbows, head in hands. “No,” Vince says. “She is too much of a liability.”

“I wouldn’t let her catch you saying that Vince,” Harriet warns him.

“She cannot come with us, we have put far too much into this,” Vince says.

“Think how far she has come in the last six months,” Brenda says. “You can’t make her sit this one out, not this one.”

“I can,” Vince says. “And I will.”

“You can’t” Thomas says finally weighing in. “And you won’t.”

“Thomas, you know what is at stake,” Vince says.

“Which is exactly why we need her,” Thomas says, “and you can try and argue all you want but you wanted to walk away. You wanted to give up. You didn’t want a part in this. This was us before it was you Vince. If there is even the smallest chance Curie is there, we need Cleo. We need her more than we need anyone. So, when I say she is coming with us, I mean it.”

“Thomas it has been six months since Wicked took our friends, do you want to put this mission at risk, to involve Cleo.”

“This doesn’t work without her.”

“Then we can’t do it,” Vince says.

“Vince, if you have ever trusted me,” Harriet says, “trust me now, if any of us, any of us, screw this up, it won’t be Cleo.”

“You can’t know that,” Vince says.

“Yes,” Harriet says, “yes I can.”

Cleo looks up as everyone approaches her, she is holding her bow in one hand, trying to not look so worried. Brenda nods at her and she almost lets herself smile. “When do we leave?” Cleo asks.

“Early, so get your rest,” Vince says, looking annoyed and leaving. Cleo looks to Jorge, who smiles at her.

“Come on, smile,” he tells her.

“Don’t smile,” Harriet says, “there are still so many variables.”

“But we have this, right?” Cleo asks.

“Yeah,” Thomas says, “I believe we do.”

“Good enough for me.”

As they start to disperse for the night Newt hovers, waiting. “Cleo,” he says.

“Yeah?” she responds.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been a prat,” he admits. She doesn’t turn to him, but she smiles a little to herself.

“I know, but I forgive you,” she leaves without letting him respond and he just stands there in the dark for a long time. Cleo sighs. She is in a weird place. She has always loved Newt, for as long as she can remember, but with the gift of hindsight she can see that despite what the other Cleo may have told herself, it wasn’t so clean cut. She adored a boy who never looked at her twice, and ignored the boy who would do anything for her. Then in The Glade, she fell for the same boy, who now without competition saw her for the first time, and yet she still couldn’t make it work, and somehow ended up going back to the boy who would do anything for her, except she was a different person and he loved her still anyway. And she killed him. Not exactly the storybook romance a young Cleo had hoped for, but maybe in this world, the world she lives in and not the world that was before or the world of the book she loved so dearly, maybe in this world, this was the happiness she got. The happiness she chose. And to do that justice she would have to choose to keep trying, to keep believing, in herself, in love and in second chances, and that maybe, when all this mess was over, there would be a place for her and Newt after all.

The longer he stepped back from her, the more Newt tried to not think about Cleo, the less successful he was. He knew Thomas was right, and that he had to get himself together. But he is lost on how to do that when he sees her, because each time he sees her he lets himself believe or hope even for a moment and then he remembers. And his own lapse of memory hits him again and again like a knife to the chest. And he is lost for what to do. He can’t be around her for the most part without making her feel worse and he doesn’t want that, but he also doesn’t want her to believe she is unwanted. Because what Newt had come to realise was if this was all the Cleo they had now, if his was their Cleo, he was okay with that, it would be hard, but she is still Cleo. And while they are fighting to get their Marie back, he couldn’t be that selfish. Marie was more gone than Cleo, and he wasn’t treating it that way and the guilt wrapped up in that was eating him alive. Maybe that’s why the memory came back to him as he tried to sleep. The memory of the lab and trying to kiss Marie. “We were different people then,” Newt says, thinking about a world where Cleo loved him and he loved Marie and Marie didn’t return those feelings made his head spin. A reminder of what life is like day to day for Cleo, who is trapped between the past and the present and the contradictions of both. “But I understand.” Even with Cleo, even with everything. With no memories and all that time in The Glade. He still understands it. Not that he didn’t love Cleo, that doesn’t add up, and no amount of memories could make him believe it would, Cleo was… Cleo and all the reasoning in the world couldn’t show him a life where he didn’t love her, even half as much as he does now. But falling for Marie, sure, that made sense, even if she didn’t have those feelings for him back then. Loving her added up perfectly, because when all is said and done, how couldn’t he love Marie… Sweet… Lovely…Marie.

_There is a fire and it is pulling at the walls, and the walls are both wooden and stone, she is both inside a house and in The Maze. She can hear so many voices, and none at the same time. The fire she can almost feel it on her skin, it was calling to her and scaring her both at the same time. She wanted to talk towards it and run. She could not speak but she could scream. And then the fire was gone, all she could see was ash falling from the sky like snow, covering her and everything in sight, it was both a horrific and a beautiful vision all at once. The silence was ringing in her ears. This all felt familiar, it all felt real. She reached out to touch the ash and the case the ash created over a body broke, and as the ash fell in on itself it turned red with the blood from the body underneath. She didn’t have to look to know who was beside her, who was dead and beside her. She tried to close her eyes but she wasn’t capable. The silence was broken with a voice, a voice she wishes she could forget. “You see Cleopatra, that is your problem,” Ava says, “you care where you should not. You interfere where you should not. And you survived when you should have not.”_

“Cleo,” Thomas’s voice wakes her and she opens her eyes to find herself under a blanket on the rough floor. “You need to get ready.”

“I was dreaming,” Cleo says. Thomas doesn’t ask what about, he just nods and leaves her to get ready. Cleo pulls her shoes to her and as she starts to fiddle with the lacing, she tries to remember anything about the dream that means anything to her. And yet she can’t. Awake now, all she remembers is Gally’s body in the snow that wasn’t snow, and how that was a dream, but reality was much worse.

Curie is doing her final checks on the immunes and once she is satisfied, she moves on to the next job. Minho.

Minho looks at her with a face of conviction he hasn’t had in weeks. He doesn’t say a word and neither does she, and Teresa’s patience grows more and more thin by the minute. “You two,” she says. “Stop, whatever this is.”

Curie genuinely unaware she is partaking in a game of will against Minho, looks at her, blank of expression. “What is it that is bothering you now, Teresa?” she asks.

Teresa looks her up and down, and something is ticking inside her, like a warning signal, like a threat. “Nothing,” she says. “Nothing at all.”

“Are you sure?” Curie asks. “Because I could do something for you.”

“Could you shut her up?” Minho asks.

“I tried to be your friend Minho, I tried to be Cleopatra’s friend too, but none of you wanted that, none of you could get past what I had done, simply because you didn’t know me, you forgive Thomas so easily, but you see me as a villain,” Teresa says.

“It wouldn’t have made a difference if they had been nice to you or not,” Curie says. “You would have still betrayed them. This way it hurts them less, because they expected it of you.”

“Some days, Curie, I could swear, you say stuff with the intention to hurt people,” Teresa says walking away.

“In that case,” Curie says watching her leave, “I am almost inclined to agree.”

“Isn’t she under your protection?” Minho asks. Curie nods, checking Minho’s restraints and readying him for transport.

“Yes, and she forgets what that really means,” Curie says.

“She is just as trapped as the rest of us,” Minho says. “But she had a choice.”

Curie can hear her as he speaks, quiet but present in the back of her mind, Marie. She is talking, to herself more than likely, but Curie can almost make out what she is saying. She knows better than to reach for it though, if Curie takes her hands off for just a moment, just a second, Marie could take everything back, and Curie is smarter than that.

“Comfortable?” Curie asks.

“You’ve never shown concern for my comfort before,” Minho says.

“That’s true, it just felt like the appropriate response, Janson has asked I make an effort to be more… polite,” Curie says.

“Why?”

“I think, most likely, because much like with Teresa, my programming bothers him a little too, because they both have faults, and they don’t like to have them pointed out.”

Cleo goes to climb in the transport with Thomas and Brenda calls her name, before practically tackling her out the vehicle. “In Bertha, with me,” Brenda tells her. Cleo looks confused.

“But,” Cleo starts.

“You have the best long range out of all of us.”

“But the transport,” Cleo says.

“Can you just trust me?” Brenda asks. “And don’t jump out the truck or anything stupid.”

“Don’t give her ideas,” Harriet says. Cleo smiles.

“I do trust you Brenda,” is all she says.


	12. Minho Above All Else

“Is that pouty face because you slept bad because you refuse to sleep in the buildings instead of in a tent, or on the floor?” Brenda asks.

“No,” Cleo says, “this pouty face is because I was put on distraction duty.”

Cleo and Brenda hear the words through the radio as the truck rattles along the dirt side by side with the rain, the words they both have been waiting to hear. “I need you to keep them busy, I am right behind them,” Thomas’s voice crackles.

“Come on princess, it’s time,” Brenda says opening up the roof. She holds her rifle stead and Cleo, pulling herself through the gap, sits on top the moving truck, legs dangling through the roof, bow pointed at the drivers. “We want good shots but not too good, we don’t want to crash this thing,” Brenda reminds her.

“Yeah, yeah, alarm, disarm, don’t kill,” Cleo says jokingly and sets off her first arrow. It shatters the side window of the front carriage and the men look very alarmed. “That suffice.”

“Good shot,” Jorge says as they go over a bump. Brenda looks immediately to grab Cleo, worried she would fall. But Cleo is fine and just smiles.

“Brenda, the only way I come off this roof is if I want to,” she reassures her. The sound flows up and through the air and it hits Cleo first. She turns to look at the train and see she’s Thomas and Vince making the jump, but she sees something else. “Fucking Berg,” Cleo says, gesturing up.

“Those bastards,” Jorge says. Thomas crackles through the radio again.

“You have company,” his voice says between the static.

“Okay we have to bounce, don’t die,” Brenda replies. She turns to Cleo, who is eyeing up how far ahead of the train they are, and how close. “Don’t you dare,” Brenda starts but before she can even finish Cleo has clambered to her feet and jumps. She lands in the dirt running. “Cleo! Shit.”

“Brenda,” Jorge says, “Cleo just jumped, didn’t she?”

“Do you see her in the truck?”

“One job,” Jorge sighs. “We had one job.”

The train separates before Cleo get’s close and she watches it slow. Thomas whistles but Newt is practically at Cleo’s side even before that. He looks at her. “Aren’t you supposed to be with Brenda, be Harriet’s backup?” he asks.

“And miss all the fun?” Cleo asks with a smirk. “Besides those girls can handle themselves, it is you idiots I am worried about.”

“This one,” Thomas instructs pointing to a crate.

“Since you’re here, help,” Newt says, handing her the bag while he puts on his goggles and pulls his scarf up. She smiles at him. “What?” he asks.

“Nothing,” Cleo says, “you just look cute.”

“Stop flirting, now isn’t the time,” Vince says.

“Don’t rush me,” Newt says, setting to work on the crate.

Cleo can hear them coming, the Wicked guards and their guns and she pulls her bow out and points it at them, even at this distance, and it is some distance, they know she is a threat. But they don’t stop coming. She hears a few gunshots and she starts to fidget. Newt notices.

“You’re distracting me,” he says. It’s a lie, it is a lie told for the sake of knowing Cleo does thing better if she thinks she is allowed to do them, like with Marie in The Maze. Newt knows had he not, in his way, told her to go, she would have gone but more clouded, and likely in more danger. This way, when she does what she was always going to do, she does it clear of mind.

“In that case I am going to start fending them off,” Cleo says. He nods, and lets her do what she has to do. Because that is the only way anyone can be with Cleo.

She moves around, trying to move past her friends with guns, take a quiet approach and she gets quite far, when a hand on her shoulder, pulls her up and throws her to the ground. “Miss me?” Curie asks. Marie in the back of Curie’s mind is screaming, screaming louder than she has ever heard her, Curie is almost distracted by it

“Do I know you?” Cleo asks, looking Curie up and down. Marie falls silent again and Cleo manages to get to her feet before Curie comes near her a second time, more focused now.

“Interesting, you don’t remember me,” she says.

“Should I?” Cleo asks, hand hovering near her arrows. There is a reluctance in her mind she doesn’t understand, maybe she feels uncomfortable going up against her with her gun, against her arrows but she doesn’t want to reach for her gun, and she doesn’t doubt she could probably draw faster than she could shoot. Cleo notices in the pause, the hesitation, she is being analyzed, watched, assessed. “Shit, you’re Curie, aren’t you?”

_“Nice to finally meet you,” Cleo says, dragging herself from the dirt. “Curie.”  
“You think you’re smart?” Curie asks, smiling, Cleo’s gun in hand. “You aren’t that smart.”  
“You didn’t actually think I would shoot him, did you?” Cleo asks.  
“Can’t take the risk,” Curie says.  
“But you can let Winston die, you can try and leave Newt behind, you can…” Cleo trails off.  
“I have priorities,” Curie says.  
“And hiding isn’t one of them?” Cleo asks. She laughs.  
“Not from you,” Curie says. “You aren’t a threat, you won’t tell because you want to protect precious Marie, and she doesn’t even know I am here. You wouldn’t want to hurt her, and you can’t hurt me.”_

“Lucky guess,” Curie says. Cleo looks at her, taking her in, Curie is Marie, but not.

“Newt,” Thomas calls down, “how are you doing?”

“Don’t rush me, I am nearly done,” he says.

“Get up here,” Thomas says as the bullets start hitting the metal. Newt looks around, trying to figure out where Cleo is in this mess. And after a moment, he sees her, further out, stood with someone else, someone who’s face he doesn’t have to see to recognize.

“Tommy,” Newt says.

“What?” Thomas yells.

“She found Curie,” Newt manages. Thomas looks where Newt is pointing and a coldness runs through him.

“She can’t take her on her own,” Thomas says.

“I think I know that,” Newt says.

Cleo can hear the gunshots, she knows what is coming. Curie is still watching her, and she get’s a feeling, a strange feeling. She knows she can’t take Curie on alone, and she knows that Curie can’t kill her, but she can hurt her. Cleo draws her bow and Curie laughs.

“That’s a fun one,” she says. “You don’t remember me, so I guess it’s less worrying to point a bow at me, feel free, if it helps.”

“It does,” Cleo says moving slightly, and Curie mimics her. Curie has one mission right now, and it isn’t to capture Cleo, even though the opportunity is there.

When Cleo shoots the arrow and it slices through the fabric of Curie’s top, she is a little taken aback. The arrow doesn’t even braise the skin, doesn’t harm Curie at all. She turns to tell her that her aim is off and Cleo is already half way back to the crate, to the boys. “Sneaky,” Curie says. She points her gun at the sand and shoots, and Cleo weaves despite the bullet not being remotely close to hitting her. But there is a sense of authenticity Curie needs to sell for her mission to succeed.

_“You must make sure Minho makes it to The Last City,” Janson says. “Minho above all else.”_

_“Direct orders,” Curie checks._

_“Direct orders.”_

_“Anything else?”_

_“If by chance you see any of the others,” Janson says. “Cleo or Thomas and such, I want you to report back all you learn. But whatever you do, they can’t get the boy.”_

_“Reconnaissance on the others.”_

_“Correct.”_

_“That is all?”_

_“That is all.”_

“So, you don’t remember me, or Marie, interesting,” Curie whispers as she watches her go. She moves at a pace almost believable to be following them, but making no effort to do so. She has ensured her mission. As the Berg arrives and lifts the crate and the others with it to safety, Curie fights an incredibly human urge to wave them off.

After all, her mission was to make sure they didn’t get Minho, and that they didn’t. “Wrong crate,” she says as they leave.

“What the hell?” Vince asks.

“I know, I ran,” Cleo says.

“Good,” Newt says.

“Good? Wasn’t the whole point of Cleo being her, that she is the only chance we have of getting to Marie through Curie and she ran?” Vince asks.

“Curie is also the best shot at getting Cleo, through to Cleo,” Cleo mumbles, “at least I think that kind of worked. I just… I knew I didn’t stand a chance of getting her to us and I figured it was better we lost her this time, than we got caught and lost everything.”

“You made the right choice,” Thomas says, as if to reassure her, but he is looking down at Curie, the person that possess Marie, as they pull away. And Cleo, looking down at Curie too as the Berg pulls away feels a dread, a deep dread.

“That was too easy,” Cleo says.

“She wasn’t expecting us,” Harriet tries.

“Something is wrong,” Cleo says. “That was too easy. Curie should never have let me get away, I walked essentially right into her trap, and yet here I am.”

“She wasn’t expecting you,” Brenda says.

“I don’t think she wanted me,” Cleo says. “I wasn’t on her task list, so she let me go.”

“She wants all the immunes,” Harriet says, “she is Wicked.”

“She is essentially preforming a check list,” Cleo says, “and I wasn’t on it, which leads me to wonder, what was? What was she protecting so damn hard that we were okay to let go?”

“Maybe it was Marie,” Thomas says, “maybe-,”

“No,” Cleo cuts him off, “I looked at Curie, I stared into those eyes and I may not remember Marie, but I remembered Curie, looking at her, I remembered her, and that was Curie, that was all Curie. Not even a trace of the girl you want to find. Don’t let yourself be fooled not for a minute, that girl down there, that just let us walk away with this crate. That wasn’t Marie, she wasn’t protecting us, she wasn’t fighting back. We didn’t matter. I want to know why.”

“You remembered something?” Newt asks.

“I remembered the first time I saw Curie, not in a glimpse, the first time I spoke to Marie and realise it was Curie,” Cleo says, “which is funny to remember without remembering Marie at all.”

“So, you remember when Wicked attacked,” Harriet says. Brenda’s eyes meet Cleo’s across the room, and Cleo knows that Brenda knows in that moment, and she hears it, the memory, calling to her across the room.

_“Cleo?” Brenda says, tired._

_“Yeah.”_

_“Something is up with your friend.”_

_“I know.”_

“No,” Cleo says honestly. “It was before that. I spoke to Curie before the attack, before Teresa activated her, or at least that’s what I think that memory means.”

“So, when you said you that I was right,” Brenda says.

“I didn’t mean oh guess what, turns out, you are in fact right about your suspicion, I meant, I know, and I’ve known for a little while, or that’s what it seems like.” Everyone else is quiet for a while. “Remind me why you want that version of me again?” Cleo tries to joke.

“What do you think we missed?” Newt asks.

“I don’t know,” Cleo admits. “But I am worried about it, she lets us walk away, you can’t deny she let us, if she had wanted me, or any of us, she would have had us. So what made her let us go?”

“I’m scared to find out.”


	13. Lizzie?

“Guys,” Fry says beckoning them. It becomes very clear, relatively quickly, exactly why Curie let them all go.

“Where is Minho?” Newt asks.

“He isn’t here,” Cleo says, biting her bottom lip out of frustration and nodding as if Curie could see her, as if the acknowledgment of her the monumental mistake they made could be witnessed.

“That’s why she let us go,” Thomas says.

“Cleo?” comes a quiet voice from the back. Cleo turns and she doesn’t remember the boy calling to her, but the blonde next to him is immediately recognised.

“Get Harriet now,” Cleo says moving to them. The boy looks beaten and bruised, and Sonya, she looks so tired and sad. “I’m going to get this right,” Cleo says, trying to inspect the boys eye, “Aris, and L-Sonya,” she says, almost confident. They look back at her, a little confused. “Sorry, Curie took my memories,” she tries to explain.

Harriet is by Cleo’s side before she can explain anymore and she throws her arms around both Aris and Sonya. She hovers, looking at Sonya, like she is looking at the sunrise. “I was so worried,” Harriet says. She looks at Aris and his beaten face. “Oh Aris.”

“We are okay,” Sonya says, holding her hand. “Harry we are okay.”

“Get some bolt cutters, now,” Harriet instructs. Fry leaves to do exactly that. Cleo looks at Thomas and Newt hovering in the doorway, whispering.

“Do that somewhere else boys,” Cleo says. She doesn’t have to hear them to know what they are discussing. They technically failed their mission, no Minho and no Curie, and although Curie wasn’t exactly the target of this, they were all quietly hoping. But Cleo knows better than to discuss failures right now. They still helped so many kids, and they got Aris and Sonya, and maybe that wasn’t at the front of Thomas’s mind but it is still a hell of a victory and Cleo won’t let his need to plan get in the way of that.

Newt nods at her and removes himself and Thomas from the crate. “You don’t remember me?” Aris asks, placing a hand gently on her arm. She looks at him, a sad thin boy with striking eyes.

“Aris I-,”

_Cleo bolts up in the bed, leaning forward to see where the sound is coming from. It sounds like underneath. Cleo leans forward, to once again dangle over the beds edge. She finds herself face to face with the boy from the cafeteria, the one sat by himself._

_“Cleo?” he asks. “Aris,” he gestures to himself._

_“Hi,” she says._

_Aris jumps over a broken piece of rubble and picking up what looks like a broken piece of scaffolding he knocks one of the cranks back.  
“Impressive,” Cleo says. Aris smiles._

_They just run, through the storm, the lightning striking on occasion encouraging speed. Cleo grabs a handful of Aris’ hoodie as he nearly falls into the sand. He nods a thank you but they don’t stop running._

_“I nearly shot her,” Harriet says gesturing to Cleo._

_“Cleo’s tough, she could probably take it,” Aris says._

“Don’t,” Harriet says cutting Sonya off as she reaches for Cleo. “She does this, she’s regaining a memory, maybe more than one. As long as she isn’t gone for more than a minute, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Aris,” Cleo says with a smile and hugs him. “You crazy kid.”

“You remember me?” he asks. Cleo nods.

“I remember you, you brave, crazy kid,” she says and realizes she probably has been hugging him for too long. She lets him go and apologizes.

“Don’t apologise,” he says. Newt coughs from the doorway.

“Glad everyone is comfortable again,” he says, “but Fry said you wanted these?” He holds up some bolt cutters.

“I remember Aris,” Cleo tells him.

“Good,” he says. “And Sonya?”

Cleo looks at Sonya and she wants to remember her, but all she can see is little Lizzie. Cleo shakes her head. “She just looks like Lizzie,” Cleo says.

“Lizzie?” Sonya asks.

“Yeah I knew a little girl-,”

“Lizzie, short for Elizbeth,” Sonya says. Both Harriet and Newt’s expressions change with that.

“Wait, you remember that?” Cleo asks.

“It’s like a switch, I didn’t and then I did,” Sonya says.

“Yeah, that’s a rough one, but Wicked isn’t infallible, I don’t think they can take our memories away forever like they think they can, I seem to be living proof of that,” Cleo says. “Do you remember anything else?”

“It’s fuzzy like I’m watching it through the rain or…”

“Murky glass?” Cleo offers. Sonya nods with wide eyes.

“That, exactly that,” she says.

“Does it help if I tell you what I know?” Cleo asks. Harriet looks at Sonya, and she was so wrapped up in the idea of getting to her she never considered what came next. She wanted to check she was okay, she wanted to make sure she got food and a good rest and someone to hold her for a while- but she couldn’t do that here, she couldn’t do that now. And as much as Harriet was worried about what the memories could do to Sonya, she had watched the way memories tore Cleo up for months, and she didn’t want that for her, she also wanted Sonya to have clarity, and she knows Sonya better than anyone. Sonya wants to know. So she takes her hand while Cleo tries to tell her what she knows. And with each anecdote Newt moves slightly closer, trying to act like he isn’t listening, waiting. But he is, because he may not remember, but Sonya might. Sonya might.

“You were so much smaller than me when I saw you, you wouldn’t believe that now,” Cleo says, “the tall beauty you turned into,” Harriet eyes her, “sorry. You didn’t stay long after you were brought in, orphaned by The Flare like most of the kids we had. You were with us, a week maybe, but you weren’t alone when you arrived, you came in with three or four other kids, and one of them-,”

“Was my older brother,” Sonya says. She looks to him then, like realising he was in the room for the first time. “You.”

“I didn’t know that he was your brother when I met you, but considering what I have been told about all I have forgotten, I probably should have figured it out,” Cleo says. Newt just looks at her. He doesn’t remember her before The Right Arm, but he knows somewhere inside that it is the truth. His little sister, Sonya.

“You have a type,” Harriet says jokingly. But both Sonya and Newt aren’t listening.

“You are my brother,” Sonya says. “I don’t remember exactly, but I know, does that sound crazy?”

“Not crazy,” Newt says, “I know exactly what you mean.”

“I don’t know what to do with that,” Sonya says. Newt smiles.

“That makes two of us.”

Harriet holds Sonya close for the whole journey, and Cleo can’t help but smile at them both. “Oh, to love like that,” she whispers to herself. Aris, who is stood on shaky legs next to her, refusing to take a seat on some kind of principle Cleo doesn’t understand.

“You did, you just don’t remember it,” Aris says.

“Marie?” Cleo asks.

“No,” Aris says. “You loved Marie, but not like that, you loved Marie like I love Harriet and Sonya, you love her without restriction and without condition. You would die for her, you would kill for her, you would move Heaven and Earth to see her happy. You would trade place to protect them from pain in a heartbeat. You love her like family, and it doesn’t matter that you could love her any other way because this is the way you love her, and that is all that matters. Above yourself, above the greater good, above it all.”

“You sound even smarter than I remember you being,” Cleo says.

“I had a lot of time to think,” Aris says. Cleo looks at him, and wonders how someone so strong can look so fragile. He may not have a fighter build, he may be skinny and bruised but no one would call Aris weak, he doesn’t have to look strong for you to just know it. Everything he survived, he had to be. And yet Cleo see’s the fragility. The delicate nature of the sweet natured boy.

“What did you think about?” she asks. He doesn’t answer and Cleo doesn’t pry. “If not Marie, then who?”

“I don’t know,” Aris says.

“Were you just trying to make me feel better?” Cleo asks, a hint of laughter in her voice.

“No,” Aris says, “I have seen you fight Cleo, both people, monsters, people that are monsters. I have seen both your emotional and your physical fighting, I have seen the drive that keeps you moving always forward. I have seen it in one other person, Harriet. Even before she knew she was in love with Sonya, I saw it. And even if no one knows, we know, and we see it. And I see the same drive in you. I don’t know who you love so much in the same way that you fight the way you do, but you have to love someone to fight like that. Love someone the way they love each other.”

“I guess you are trying not to say Newt,” Cleo says.

“I don’t know Cleo,” Aris says. “I don’t think for you, it is ever the obvious answer.”

“You don’t think I love Newt?” Cleo asks.

“No, I know you love Newt, I have seen you, I am not blind and I am not an idiot, anyone who spends any time with the two of you can see you two love each other, I just don’t think it is that simple.”

“Because of Marie,” Cleo says.

“Not in the way you think,” Aris says, “but yeah, because of Marie.”

“You don’t think she made me weak?” Cleo asks.

“You are torn between remembering and not, because hearing your life the way others tell it makes you sound like a crazy person, doesn’t it? You jumped into a desert wasteland to protect a girl, you kept yourself from the boy you know you love, for a girl, you fought armed men and soldiers for a girl, a girl who you don’t remember.”

“I want to remember her, I decided that a while ago, I decided that for me, not for everyone else.”

“But you are scared to remember the person you were for loving her,” Aris says. “She was pretty badass, that Cleo, pretty fierce, and a little sad.”

“And a little sad,” Cleo repeats back to him.

“So what makes her any different from you?” Aris asks. Cleo smiles at him and despite the height difference now, she reaches and ruffles his hair.

“You know Aris, I may not have remembered you, but I think I missed you,” Cleo says.

“I missed you too,” Aris says, “but you didn’t half take your time coming to rescue us.”

“I had no memories, you can’t blame me.”

“Who do I blame?” he asks, he is joking, he is trying to keep Cleo smiling because it is so long since has seen genuine smiles and he has missed it.

“Blame Tommy, it’ll be funny,” she jokes.

“I definitely won’t do that,” Aris says.

“Good, he would not be happy,” Cleo says laughing.

“Hey Cleo?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you remember?”

“Almost everything now, that doesn’t involve Marie, you are the first thing I really remember that is post Maze,” Cleo says.

“Almost everything that doesn’t involve Marie?” Aris asks.

“Yeah, almost everything, I think.”

“Doesn’t almost everything involve Marie.”

“Almost exclusively, it seems.”

“So, you remember nothing?”

“I remember my attitude, I remember more and more each day the person I was, I remember memories that have Marie in them, but she is just, taken out? Blank? Where she speaks, I don’t hear her, where she stands, I don’t see her, where she is the reason the memory exists, she isn’t there.”

“They took her right out of you, how did they do that?”

“Curie stabbed me with a needle,” Cleo says.

“She was the only thing you saw clearly,” Aris says. “So, she is the only thing that definitely went away.”

“That’s a theory,” Cleo says. Aris shakes his head.

“No, that’s more or less how the procedures work, they show images and videos at first to the subjects of all the things they want us to forget, and then layer by layer they strip the memories away,” Aris explains.

“How do you know that?” Cleo asks.

“They talk a lot when they don’t think you are listening.”

“So…”

“So, in trying to remember her, she was the one thing you guaranteed you forgot.”


	14. We Weren't Friends

“I wish I could say your troubles are over” Vince starts to tell the kids. Cleo walks past, trying to not look at Vince. She knows how he feels about her, and he doesn’t make an effort to hide it. She is a liability. The one thing Cleo always wanted to make sure she never was, and it is the only thing he sees her as. Yet she is one of the only people who believes the boat could actually work.

“My daddy was a sailor,” Cleo says every time Harriet asks for reassurance. “A boat seems like the best shot we have, and trust me, that’s a lot safer than most boat’s I’ve seen.”

“How many did you actually see though?” Harriet asks. “Between the virus and Wicked, I can’t imagine you had much more of a childhood than any of us.”

“Before my father died, he had a lot of intention of making my life as normal as possible, Bessie’s too, so we got the normal things, we saw boats and we learned to tie nots and read books and I watched old movies, and I even learned a little bit the piano, Mary taught me that,” Cleo says, “but then he died and Ava decided none of it mattered. My life was just the lab. She tried at first to tell us it was because it was my dads own recklessness that got him The Flare, and at least in the lab we were safe. But I didn’t believe it then and I see it for the lie it was now, she didn’t care about us having any kind of life or childhood, what was the point? The Flare was all she saw. It was all that she thought mattered.”

“Your mother is a bitch,” Harriet says.

“I know.”

“She doesn’t remember you,” Ava says, surprised.

“She remembers me now, but she doesn’t remember Marie, I saw her face when she saw Marie at risk because of my existence, and that was not the same worried girl looking at me,” Curie says. “She seems to know she is supposed to care, but I didn’t sense she did. She didn’t want to hurt me though, so they clearly have told her about Marie, but none of it means anything to her.”

“So, she is acting entirely on how others want her too,” Ava says, “she is much less effective that way.”

“Anything else clear about her from your assessment?” Janson asks.

“She seemed sure of herself,” Curie says, “which without any memories doesn’t seem likely.”

“So you think she remembers something, just not Marie,” Ava says.

“She definitely remembers something, I saw the way she was with A2 and A5,” Curie says, “she definitely still has a loyalty and a care, but it is different.”

“How interesting,” Ava says. “How very interesting.”

Cleo looks at the boat again, a ship really, the way it has slowly become more and more sailable. She remembers her father, and the way he would talk about the sea, about travel and she wonders for a moment if he would be proud of her. “You aren’t going to start singing to lure men to their death, are you?” Thomas asks.

“No,” Cleo says. “I doubt it would work.”

“I don’t know, you definitely have some attention,” Thomas nods his head and Cleo doesn’t even look, she knows what he means.

“Leave it,” Cleo says.

“It’s a different world from The Glade, isn’t it? No such rules out here,” Thomas says.

“That’s why you kissed her, isn’t it?” Cleo asks. Thomas looks at her and Cleo realises what she said. “I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”

“I do,” Thomas says, “your memory.”

“I don’t remember it happening,” Cleo says.

“No, but it did, and you know it, somewhere in there,” Thomas says. Cleo watches the water, watches the waves crash and disappear into nothing, like they were never there at all. “You still feel nothing, don’t you?”

“I feel something,” Cleo says. “I feel a want to feel something.”

“I will never be able to help you understand what you felt for her, because I’m not even sure you knew just what you were willing to do for her,” Thomas says.

“You’ve given me a good idea,” Cleo says. “I was willing to kill for her, willing to die for her, what is there left to say?”

“Saying it isn’t feeling it Cleo,” Thomas says.

“Like you say you can handle it, and you feel like you can fall apart?” Cleo asks. Thomas sighs.

“You know,” he pulls her into a hug and she is beyond confused. “You remind me of yourself more and more,” she lets him hug her, “and you would be Cleo if you were never that Cleo again, but when you do that thing, where you act like you don’t know something and you do, you see what you see and you act on it. You are her. You are Cleo.”

“We weren’t friends, were we,” Cleo says. “We were more like…”

“Siblings?” Thomas asks. “I got that feeling, you would butcher me in front of Marie Cleo, you really would, you were ruthless in your approach to me, but you also risked your life for me. You’re right though, we were never really…friends… we were more like family.”

“So that’s why you wanted her back, me back,” Cleo says, “not just for Marie.”

“I didn’t want to lose anyone else I cared about,” Thomas says, “and I realized telling you that couldn’t help, because you remembered me as the boy who took notes on your friends, and played scientist with your mother.”

“I didn’t really like you, but maybe that’s because I didn’t know you,” Cleo says.

“I gave you no reason to like me,” Thomas says.

“And when you arrived in The Maze?”

“You were with Marie.”

“So I was the mother in law you were trying to win over?”

“Maybe,” Thomas laughs, “at first.”

“That’s okay, I am okay with that.”

Curie is alone, and when she is alone, she notices her most. But today, it is her absence she notices. The way Marie has backed further into her mind, the way Marie is hiding. Curie knows why. With all the things that could go wrong, with all the possibilities, with all Curie or Wicked could do, Marie always felt, on some level, Cleo was untouchable. Cleo had never proven otherwise. She always made it out. She always turned up okay. She always survived. Maybe killing her would have been kinder on them both, because Cleo without her memories was worse than anything Marie had felt and even Curie could feel that. As, subconsciously and seemingly harmlessly, her hand hovers over the ring, unbeknownst to her waiting to move it, to adjust it, so it sits the way it should, where it belongs.

Cleo replays the mistakes she made over and over in her mind. She plays over and over her interaction with Curie, trying to see how she missed it, or how she could have done better. But even though she didn’t know who she was, and didn’t remember what she meant to her, looking at Curie’s face had made her hesitant. Made her withdraw. Even when she shot, she shot not to wound her, just to distract her. Even though it was Curie and Cleo knows Curie could have taken her down with ease. She wasn’t the Cleo who knew how to fight, to survive, she was getting there, but she was nothing against Curie. And yet she was still reluctant to hurt her.

She notices her hands shaking and she sighs. “No,” she tells herself. “We are better than that.”

But she can remember Curie chasing her now, through the smoke, she remembers a fear, not for herself, but for someone else, Marie, she guesses. To love someone so much that even as they are used against you, you only worry about them.

She remembers Curie taking her memories away and that’s the fear, the fear she had for herself. Maybe the only fear Cleo had for herself. Her hands trembling now, she does what she does when she cannot get herself under control, sadness, fear, anger. She sings.

“You hear a lot of stories,” she whispers barely even to a melody, and staring at the sea.

It hits her. A feeling.

She doesn’t see her face even though she knows what she looks like now.

She doesn’t hear her voice even though she has heard it now.

But she knows the feeling as soon as it engulfs her.

The connection. The desire to protect. The loyalty. The care. The pure, undeniable love. She is overwhelmed by it. It reaches every part of her mind like a wildfire. It hurts in a way she doesn’t understand, but remembers. Loving someone so very much without recollection, without memory, without the person. She wants to save her, even without her memories. She wants to protect her, from the past, the present, the future, from Wicked, and Ava, and Curie and even herself. She wants to know she is safe and sound. She wants to bring down everything that has kept her from them. She doesn’t remember Marie, but she remembers loving her. She remembers what it feels like to love her. And what it feels like to be willing to do whatever it takes for her.

She twists the ring around her finger. “Even if I never get my memories back Marie, I won’t rest until we get you back, that is a promise.”


	15. The Kindest Thing

“When it happens, you will be the first to know,” Brenda says covering her ankle again.

“It’s been months longer than Mary gave you,” Jorge says. “Why wont you admit that means something.”

“Cleo, I know you are hovering, that camo makes you obvious,” Brenda says. Cleo who was leaning on the other ide of the wall steps into view. “Can you explain to Jorge why he needs to stop acting like this is some kind of miracle.”

“If she accepts even for a moment, she could be okay, then why what she sees as inevitable happens, it will hurt like hell,” Cleo says. They both look at her, unsatisfied on both sides by that response.

“I will turn, maybe not today or tomorrow, but I will turn eventually, you have to be ready for that,” Brenda says.

“I’m not leaving without you,” Jorge says.

“Yes, you are,” Brenda says. “I can’t come with you.”

“You don’t know that,” Cleo says cutting in.

“Cleo, you of all people should know that’s the truth,” Brenda says.

“I don’t think I should know anything,” Cleo says. “You’re my friend Brenda, if you think there is anything I wouldn’t do, to try and get you on that boat, you haven’t learned anything about me.”

“I’ve learned you’re stubborn as all hell,” Brenda says.

“From what I hear, that is pretty consistent with all versions of me,” Cleo says. Jorge smiles.

“She isn’t leaving you either,” Jorge says. Brenda shakes her head.

“If you get Marie, you will take her on that boat, with or without me, you have to promise me that,” Brenda says.

“Brenda,” Jorge says. But Brenda isn’t looking at Jorge, her eyes are on Cleo.

“Promise me,” Brenda says.

“You want me to promise, that if I get Marie back, and I cannot help you, I will still get on that boat?” Cleo asks, very carefully.

“Yes,” Brenda says.

“Fine,” Cleo says, thinking about her words, “I promise, that if we get Marie back, we will get on the boat.”

“You are very specific Cleo, you do that when you mean to be difficult, like with the truck,” Brenda says. “Just say it-,”

“Cleo,” Thomas calls, “we need you for this.”

“Saved by Tommy,” Cleo says walking towards where Thomas was calling her from.

“Cleo, don’t try me on this, I won’t put you all at risk again,” Brenda calls after her.

“Don’t worry, I can promise you it won’t come down to that.”

Aris is being tended to by Sonya and Harriet, and he keeps wincing and the scene reminds Cleo of something, but she shakes the memory away. “You going to tell us why you look so rough?” Newt asks.

“I fought back,” Aris says, “or I tried to.”

“Tough man now?” Cleo asks. Harriet looks at her like she is out of line making a joke but Aris smiles.

“Something like that,” Aris says.

“He was an idiot,” Sonya says.

“A brave idiot,” Cleo says. “And a smart one.”

“They talk a lot when they don’t think it matters,” Aris says.

“Wait, you got yourself beat up because it makes them more… chatty?” Thomas asks.

“It wasn’t my intention to begin with,” Aris says. “But it did work in my favor. I was just trying to- not give in, give up, and I got bored of hearing them, so I fought back, I spoke out, and I listened.”

“When being quiet was no longer your best asset, you were loud instead,” Cleo says. “You never fail to impress me Aris.” Newt gives her a look and she shrugs at him.

“Do you know where you were headed?” Thomas asks.

“Some city,” Sonya says. “They kept talking about a city, some city, city this, city that…”

“I thought all the cities were gone,” Harriet says.

“They are,” Brenda says joining them. “There’s nothing really left at all. It’s rubble, ruins, they all fell with The Flare. All the people in such a small space, all the infection. They fell apart so fast.”

“No, they didn’t,” Cleo says. “Not all of them.”

“What do you mean?” Thomas asks.

“The files,” Cleo says.

“The ones you burned?” Thomas asks. Cleo tries to remember, it’s barely in her mind.

“I burned them?” Cleo asks, running a hand through her hair. “Remind me why we like that version of me?”

“Cleo focus,” Newt says taking her hand. “The files.” She tries to remember and bits and pieces come back in flashes.

_A19 ‘Marie’ The Unintentional Variable_ _._ _“Oh Ma,” Cleo whispers, looking at the photo of her, in her lab coat, so young, so hopefully, so unprepared for what is about to come. “This was never supposed to happen to you.”_

_The test was successful, A19 against all better judgment entered The Maze without stopping._

_She reaches for the lighter and without even thinking about it, she sets them all on fire. A few pieces of paper slip from the files, escaping the flames and Cleo picks them up, individually throwing them on the fire, she lefts one burn just as she reads the words at the top, as soon as she sees Marie’s name and the title, she reaches for it, wanting to double check what she just read, what she glimpsed. The possibility of what that means. But it burns faster than she can catch it. The gravity of the choice she made starts to hit her and she puts the fire out, staring at the burnt paper and ash._

“The Last City,” Cleo says, she can practically see the words on the paper being burned by the fire.

“The Last City?” Thomas asks.

“That,” Sonya says agreeing with her, “that is what they kept saying. The Last City.”

“The Last City, could Wicked get more pretentious?” Brenda asks.

“Or more obvious,” Cleo says.

“So, they were taking you to The Last City,” Thomas says. “But I have another question. Why wasn’t Minho on the train?”

Aris looks away, and the final piece of exactly why Curie let them go becomes evident. “He was” Cleo says. “He fucking was, wasn’t he”?”

“I’m sorry,” Aris says, “but he was.”

“She let us go because she was there to make sure if we turned up we didn’t get Minho, and we didn’t, so she fulfilled mission,” Cleo says. “He was there, and we missed him.”

“He’ll be headed to The Last City too, they acted like they needed him more than they needed anything,” Sonya says. “We barely even saw him.”

“He was alone, this whole time?” Cleo asks. All eyes go on her. “I just-,”

“No,” Aris says, “I think it was worse than that… I don’t think he was alone. I think he was stuck with Curie.”

“You’re torturing yourself,” Brenda says.

“I know,” Cleo says, her leg tapping the ground repeatedly as she sits, head rested on her other knee, staring at the sky as it starts to go dark.

“No one else saw it either,” Brenda says.

“But I should have, if I were her, I would have,” Cleo says.

“But you aren’t, and I know all everyone has told you to do, since you woke up, was be here, but today you did something Cleo would have never done, and I am so thankful you did,” Brenda says.

“What?”

“You walked away from Curie.”

“I was a coward.”

“No, you used your head,” Brenda says. “Cleo could never do that when Marie was involved.”

“I’ve noticed,” Cleo sighs. “But I shouldn’t have, I should have faced her, or fought her, or something-,”

“Ava doesn’t want you, if she had caught you, you’d be dead, and how would that be better?” Brenda asks. Cleo isn’t sure Brenda is right. Ava does not care for Cleo, but she knows Cleo is still valuable, so what Cleo says next comes out of pain and not out of fact.

“Maybe I should have died in The Maze or The Scorch, or during the attack, because between being dead and being this do you really think you all got saddled with the better option? I am a liability, I am a hindrance,” Cleo says.

“Cleo, the kindest thing you can do for someone in this world, is outlive them, so they never have to lose you,” Brenda says.

“But you already did, all of you. You already lost Cleo. Didn’t you?”

“Stop it, stop it now.”

“No.”

“Cleo-,”

“Brenda, I won’t pretend with you, because you are maybe the only person here who is more of a hypocrite than me.”

“Is this because what I said about not getting on the boat?”

“Maybe, or maybe I just… I’m sick of being me and knowing I shouldn’t be.”

The Last City, high walls all around, keeping the horrors outside from getting in. The Last City, the base of operations for Wicked. The Last City, Wicked’s last hope, last playing card. The place they bring all the immunes as they try to justify their choices with science and big talks about ‘the greater good’ and ‘promises made are to be kept.’

“Is he here?” Teresa asks, walking down a corridor next to Curie. She looks so unsure of herself next to Curie’s confidence. Her hair is pulled out her face and she is wearing almost formal wear, but she struggles to keep up with Curie and her more efficient walking pace, probably due to the heels she isn’t used to wearing.

“Yes. He is here. Do you think I would be here if he weren’t?” Curie asks.

“Curie, the politeness,” Teresa reminds her.

“What about that wasn’t polite?” Curie asks.

“The rhetorical question.”

“It wasn’t rhetorical, I was genuinely questioning if you believed I would be here if he wasn’t.”

“Glad to see you girls are getting along,” Ava says. “Everyone settled in?”

“Everyone is where they should be,” Teresa says.

“Except for those unaccounted for,” Janson says.

“How many do we have?” Ava asks.

“Twenty-eight immunes in the building,” Curie says.

“Good,” Ava says. “Although we could have done with more, we are short on time.”

“Would you like a unit to try and collect more?” Janson asks. Ava shakes her head.

“Not right now,” Ava says. “Curie?”

“Yes Ava,” Curie responds.

“Any news on the others?” Ava asks. Janson frowns.

“Nothing as of yet,” Janson starts.

“I didn’t ask you Janson,” Ava says.

“It is literally my job,” Janson says.

“Then why is your daughter performing it better than you?” Ava asks. Janson doesn’t respond because all the responses he can think of would not help his cause, so he stays quiet and let’s Curie tells Ava all the information Janson had told Curie less than an hour before. “And what about the outer city?”

“Beyond the wall?” Curie asks.

“Yes, how is everything beyond the wall?”

“The people grow more and more violent every day,” Curie says.

“The virus is spreading, people are rioting, people are plotting,” Janson says.

“They want to be let in,” Curie states.

“That can’t happen,” Teresa says, “The Last City is a safe zone. Until we have something more than what we have now, we can’t risk the infection breaching the walls.”

“Thank you for stating the obvious,” Janson says.

“Intel suggests there are several groups that are relative threat,” Curie says.

“But all the precautions are in place,” Janson says.

“Nothing to be concerned about?” Ava asks.

“There is minimal risk,” Curie says.

“Good,” she says. “Very good.”

Minho stares at the glass, the glass he knows is two sided. “Come on,” he whispers to himself. “Think you shank.”

“Minho?” comes Curie’s voice through the speakers, except it sounds softer. It sounds like Marie.

“No,” he tells himself.

“Minho can you hear me? Are you okay?”

“Not real. Not her.”

“Minho I don’t know what is happening, Minho are you okay?”

“Fuck you Teresa,” Minho says looking at the glass again. “Fuck you Curie, fuck whoever is behind that glass,” he hands a punch and the glass shakes but doesn’t shatter. “I know it isn’t her, and you can’t hurt me like that. You can’t.”

“No,” a doctor says coming in the door with two guards. “That was just a little testing.” Minho gets back into the corner by the guards and they hold him down.

Curie and Teresa are behind the glass. Teresa looks unsettled, she has never coped well with violence. Curie just watches, trying to understand from her own programming if she needs to protect Minho or leave it be. “You look worried about him?” Teresa asks.

“She is,” Curie says.

“And you?”

“Should I be? He is safe after all, isn’t he?” Curie asks.

“Perfectly safe,” Janson says. “Nowhere is safer than here with Wicked.”

‘Unless you are immune’ comes Marie’s voice in Curie’s head. She fights it, but a part of her knows she is right. Her job is to serve Wicked, but she can’t help but notice how that almost contradicts her other orders, her currently lower priority orders.

“You have no reason to be here Curie, go about your tasks,” Janson says. Curie doesn’t take her eyes of Minho. “That is an order Curie.”

“Order received.”


	16. Doomed

“A week and we could get into the city” Thomas says. Vince shakes his head at him.

“A city?” Vince asks.

“Wicked call it The Last City” Cleo says. “It’s where they have taken Minho.”

“A week?” Vince says. “No, no we have spent too much time on this, we can’t risk it like this.”

“No one is leaving without Minho and Marie,” Cleo says.

“We don’t have that time,” Vince says. “Especially with the unpredictability of… certain factors.”

“Do you mean Curie, or me?” Cleo asks.

“Both,” Vince says. “We don’t know what it would take to get Marie back, we can’t rely on your mind with it split the way it is. That is why we needed you with Curie at the train-,”

“I screwed up, don’t you think I know that?” Cleo snaps.

“The odds were against you, you made the correct choice,” Thomas says.

“I made the only choice that has ever set me so far apart from the girl you want me to be,” Cleo says. “Which is why I don’t believe you.”

“I am not agreeing to this,” Vince says.

“Vince, we can do it,” Thomas argues.

“We didn’t get Minho, he was the target,” Cleo says.

“We saved a lot of the kids, we got Sonya, we got Aris and we got out with our lives and minimal damage, I am not taking this risk, I say no,” Vince says. “I am sorry. But no.”

The Wicked night surveillance flies overhead and all the lights go out. Cleo is sat out in the ruins of a building. She is watching Wicked with the same intensity the lights survey the ground. They haven’t found them yet, and she doesn’t believe they will, but she always likes to watch, to be sure. It reminds her first year in The Glade. The way she would sleep in the tower, but she would watch The Maze entrance, like it could open, like something could get into The Glade while the others slept. She just wanted to be sure, she just wanted to know they were safe. That her boys were safe. She feels like that now, a watcher, protecting them in the dark. 

“Need company?” comes a voice Cleo doesn’t expect to hear.

“Newt?” Cleo asks trying to see him in the shadows.

“What gave me away?” Newt asks, moving to stand beside her.

“I would recognize you anywhere,” Cleo says.

“I don’t doubt that,” he says, looking at the surveillance in the sky. “You playing guard again?”

“No,” Cleo tries to deny it.

“You did the same thing in The Glade,” Newt reminds her.

“I was just thinking about that,” Cleo says. “Do you ever miss it? Now, with everything we have been through? Do you wish we could just, be back in The Glade? I know it wasn’t home, but I don’t think we have ever really had a home. It is strange to think The Glade felt safer than anywhere we have been since. We were fighting for our lives in The Glade, but we had moments, we had quiet, we had relief and calm in the grass, in the trees, by the campfire.”

“You’re wrong,” Newt says. “We have had a home, but home isn’t a place, it’s people, we were each other’s home.”

“You’ve been quiet for ages and now you’re being cheesy?” Cleo asks.

“I know,” Newt says. “I am done being an ass.”

“You have said that before,” Cleo sighs. “Do you think we are doomed, you and me?”

“What do you mean?” Newt asks. “Like as people-,”

“No,” she says, brushing her hand over his, “not as people. Just… as us.”

“Why would you ask that?” Newt asks, taking her hand.

“Because you didn’t love me, and then you did, and then we couldn’t be together because of me, and then I lost all my memories and you couldn’t love the girl I became-,”

“Cleo that isn’t true,” Newt says.

“It’s okay Newt, it’s okay, really” Cleo says. “But it is true.”

“No,” Newt tries.

“Please stop,” Cleo says, “just listen. You love her, and I might be here tomorrow, or next month or never, and that’s just something I have to accept. And I know you will never love me the way you loved her, and that should be clear to you from the idea that you didn’t love me before-,”

“I don’t remember that,” Newt says.

“I know, but I do,” Cleo says. “I remember loving you and you not even knowing I exist. And then when I woke up and you did, in a selfish way I liked not being her, not being that Cleo because that Cleo didn’t appreciate what she had, and she didn’t deserve you. You hurt her, sure, but she didn’t understand. Or she chose to ignore it. But I was old me, the me you never saw and the longer you looked at me, the less you saw of her and the more of me and the more it felt like I was falling back into that space. I don’t blame you, I know why you want her back, like I understand why we want Marie back. I am not bad like Curie is, but I am still a poor imitation of someone you loved, even if I was here first, and I am also still Cleo, this me will never be the Cleo you love like you loved her. And I wonder, if we are so doomed in the grand scheme of things, that if by the time I become that Cleo you want back so bad, either she will still be the dumb girl she always was or something else will have changed.”

“Cleo,” he says. “I never want you to feel like you aren’t good enough, that you aren’t her enough, I,”

“I know you didn’t mean to upset me, I know that wasn’t your intention,” Cleo says. “Just like it wasn’t mine to be everything you didn’t want me to be.”

“I still love you, you know,” Newt says.

“I know,” Cleo says. “Just not like you loved her.”

“You are her,” Newt says.

“I wonder if I could make you understand if I could make you remember Marie before, but I can’t even remember Marie at all, so I don’t know how I could possibly help you,” Cleo says.

“If I have learnt anything from watching you and Thomas, it is that you were right, and maybe remembering isn’t what we need to do,” Newt says. Cleo tries not to take that to heart.

“I am just memories,” Cleo says.

“No you aren’t, you aren’t, I, I can’t say a single right thing,” Newt says.

“See, doomed.”

“I don’t think we are doomed,” Newt says. He wants to say something to make her pain go away, the pain he is causing once again. “I wish I knew how to do anything except cause you pain, when all I ever wanted was to see you happy.”

“You’ve said that before,” Cleo says.

“What?” he asks.

“You’ve said that before,” Cleo repeats.

“No I-,”

“Yes, you have, yes you have, just not to me.”

_-Flashback-_

_Newt follows Marie down a corridor and she is trying not to look behind her. “Newt,” she mumbles._

_“I’m sorry,” Newt says and stops in his tracks. She hears him stop and she, against her better judgment, stops walking also._

_“Don’t apologies, it was my mistake,” Marie says, “I should have never let you think-,”_

_“Let me think what?” Newt asks._

_“Let you think you could do what you did,” Marie says. She sounds so sad, she looks so sad and Newt can’t understand why, he doesn’t understand how a kiss could upset her so much._

_“What did I do that was so wrong?” Newt asks._

_“I can’t explain it to you Newt, I just… I need you to know you can’t,” her voice hitches, “you can’t do that, not ever.”_

_“You said that already,” Newt says. Marie turns around and she looks like she might cry._

_“But did you understand it, because I need you to understand it Newt, you just can’t, we can’t, tell me you understand,” Marie says._

_“I wish I knew how to do anything except cause you pain, when all I ever wanted was to see you happy,” Newt says._

_“Maybe not this way,” Gally says looking down at the two of them. Marie tries to look together and Cleo catches her eye._

_“Are you okay Marie?”_

_“I’m fine Cleo, completely fine.”_

“I… remember that,” Newt says. Cleo looks almost sadder.

“Maybe there is hope for you yet, Newt,” Cleo says placing a hand on his face. ‘Just not for us’ the words aren’t spoken but it is like they both can hear them.

“Cleo we aren’t doomed,” Newt says.

“I really hope you are right Newt, because my entire life, all I remember, was no matter the choice, I chose you, and I hate to be wrong,” Cleo says. “Goodnight.”


	17. What About Cleo?

Thomas grabs his belongings as quietly as he can, moving it into a bag and trying to move quietly through the dark. He knows old Cleo would catch him around about now, likely bow to his throat for the audacity of trying to leave without her. Or she would have left already. But Thomas takes solace in the only benefit of Cleo’s current state, is she is less likely to predict his actions and cut him off. Cleo in her current state is good, but she doesn’t have the knowledge of old Cleo, she doesn’t have the same critical thinking when it comes to Thomas. She is softer now, and that makes it easier to sneak past her. He doesn’t want to leave his friends behind but he also knows there are too many things that could go wrong, too many things that he can’t account for and he just can’t ask them to do that. Because he knows they would say yes, he knows he wouldn’t even have to ask, and he can’t be responsible for more of his friends being hurt.

He moves towards the truck and a lamp flickers on. Newt, leaning on the truck, stares at him. “You really think that would work?” Newt asks. Thomas sighs. He had considered Cleo, Cleo and only Cleo and he had neglected to consider the obvious answer. Cleo may not remember exactly what he could do, but Newt does.

“I can’t just stand around, I can’t leave without them-,”

“Don’t be a twat about it, I’m already in,” Newt says. 

“No, not this time. If we go, we might not come back,” Thomas starts. “Getting to The Last City is dangerous as it is, then the outer city is a wreck from what we know, and getting in, facing Wicked. I don’t like the chances of getting to them and getting out. Especially with Curie.”

“Then you’ll need all the help you can get” Newt says. His hand hovers on the door of the truck.

“Newt, I know it’s Minho and Marie but I can’t let you-,”

“I’ve known Minho longer than you have and Marie…” Newt trails off. There is no way he can explain to Thomas how he feels about Marie, because it is complicated. She was his best friend, she was his confidant, she was hope on the dark days, his comfort on the worst days. She was always there to keep him together, keep him going. He hadn’t thought about it because he had been so focused on Cleo, he had always been so focused on Cleo and now he had time to think, it was all he could think about. So, he can’t explain it, because there is so much going on in his mind.

“I know, they are family,” Thomas says, “we love them, and we would do anything for them, but I can’t ask you-,”

“You aren’t asking,” Newt says. “And you don’t get a say in what I do and don’t do Thomas.” Thomas isn’t having it though, and he tries the one thing he thinks might work.

“What about Cleo?” he asks.

“You think you’d be able to stop Cleo?” Newt asks. Newt opens the door to show Fry in drivers’ seat and Cleo sulking slightly in the back.

“I think this is dumb, but from the little I remember about Minho, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him, we are all in” Cleo says leaning on the front seat. “And I don’t even think I need to speak on the behalf of Marie.”

“Cleo,” Thomas says.

“Tommy,” Cleo says back. “Stop trying and just get in the damn car.”

“The surveillance has picked up nothing,” Janson says looking at the screens.

“I could track them down? If that is what you want?” Curie asks. Janson looks at her, it isn’t particularly like Curie to make suggestions for orders, it is a little out of place.

“You almost sound sentimental, Curie,” Janson says.

“Not at all,” Curie says, “I don’t have sentimentality. But they are immunes after all.”

“That isn’t your current concern,” Janson says. “You understand your current orders, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Curie says.

“Which orders take priority?” Janson asks.

“Updated orders over base orders,” Curie says.

“Good,” Janson says turning away from her.

“So, no new orders?” Curie checks.

“No Curie. I don’t need your help on this.”

“I am not sure that is fact.”

“Curie.”

“Yes?”

“You’re dismissed.”

Teresa is watching Minho through the glass. The experimentation seems to be working, not at the same rate as The Maze but faster than the regular production. She isn’t sure what the simulations exactly construct in his mind, but she has a good idea and there is a guilt she feels, even if not enough to make it stop.

_The Glade disappears and Minho is back at the facility, and he knows it isn’t real. Every time he knows it isn’t real. But seeing his friends over and over again. The dark veins, the monsters they become. It feels real, the running, the fear, it is real to him. And what comes after is always worse. Always worse than he can imagine. Nothing hurts more than seeing Marie. Nothing can hurt him more than that, even when he knows it isn’t real. Especially when he knows it isn’t real because for a moment, he thinks it is. He thinks he could reach her, just for a moment, just a second, before he remembers he can’t and he can’t save her. Not in the real world and not in his head._


	18. Don't You Dare

“No,” Fry says looking at the tunnel. The tunnel looks like it goes on for at least a mile and is surrounded by rock on either side. It’s the quickest and really the only way to get where they are headed. However, it also is a reminder of every dark place they have visited before now, and what has always been waiting for them in it.

“That does not look reassuring,” Cleo says. It almost reminds her of The Maze, it gives her the same deep daunting feeling in the pit of her stomach as she looks at it, the same concern of the unknown.

“Can you hear it?” Thomas asks. On the wind, on the breeze, on the slow-moving air, the sound coming from the tunnel. The sound of the cranks. 

“I am not deaf,” Cleo says.

“It’s the only way,” Fry says.

“Can’t go over it,” Cleo says. Newt sighs.

“I’ll get the shotgun” Newt says.

“I get a feeling we might need more than that,” Cleo says, eyeing the darkness. “A lot more.”

“Loving the confidence Cleo,” Thomas says.

“Sorry.”

Fry drives slowly at first which makes Cleo even more uneasy. Maybe it is the dark, maybe the way it reminds her of something she can’t quite pin down. “Last time we did something like this we got chased by cranks,” Thomas says.

“Winston,” Newt says, looking out the window.

“That isn’t what I meant,” Thomas says looking to Cleo.

“When Brenda got bitten,” Cleo whispers.

“Do you remember that?” he asks.

“Almost, kind of,” Cleo says. “These days it is hard to know what I remember and what I remember being told.” She knows that Brenda got bitten when they got separated from the others in an escape from Janson. She knows that she, Thomas and Brenda ended up walking through tunnels and broken buildings and chased by cranks, and she saved Brenda’s life. But she doesn’t really remember it. She wishes she did, because maybe she would better understand then, why Brenda feels she has a debt to pay.

“Well at least in a car we are safer than on foot,” Fry says trying for a smile from the others.

“Famous last words,” Cleo says.

“You don’t have to be so negative,” Fry fries as the first crank hits the side door, making Thomas jump.

“You were saying,” Cleo says, eyes on the crank.

“You might want to speed up Fry, mate,” Newt says, seeing them start to come out from the dark.

“You think?” Fry asks before putting his foot on the gas. Fry navigates the darkness the best he can, but the cranks just keep coming, and they don’t stop. Cleo starts to wind down a window and Newt practically tackles.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Trying to help,” Cleo pulls an arrow from under the seat and lines it with the gap between the window glass and the door frame. She takes out one or two cranks as Fry swerves a little dangerously. “Careful!”

“I’m sorry I can’t drive and account for your aiming,” Fry says. Cleo glares at him but he doesn’t see.

“Can you,” Newt pulls her away from the window again, “can you not?”

“Does it make you uneasy?” Cleo asks, reaching for another arrow. Newt moves to sit on the window side seat, and looks at her, like it could stop her from getting to the window. She just looks at him for a moment before climbing onto his lap to take the next shot. Thomas throws them both a look. “One word Tommy and I swear,” Cleo warns him taking out another crank.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Thomas says.

“I would, do you think now is the time?” Fry asks.

“Keep your eyes on the road,” Cleo says.

“Stop wasting arrows,” Newt says, placing both hands on her sides to try and move her. She looks at him now eyes questioning.

“Don’t you dare,” she says.

“Stop arguing,” Fry says and swerves again.

“Hands off me if you’re going to try to stop me,” Cleo says.

“Surely hands off would have sufficed?” Thomas says, trying to keep his eyes forward.

“You can shut up too, I am trying to save our asses here,” Cleo points out. Newt in one quick movement, moves Cleo off him and into the middle seat. “Newt!”

“Cleo, no matter which version you are you put yourself unnecessarily in danger,” Newt says.

“What was the crank going to do, climb through the gap, take my goddamn arrow?” Cleo snaps.

“I can’t think straight when you are acting recklessly,” Newt says.

“You don’t control me Newt,” Cleo says. Newt looks hurt.

“I wasn’t trying to-,”

“Stop bickering!” Fry says. A crank hits the bumper of the truck and Fry hits the breaks.

“Fry,” Cleo says, looking through the back window.

“That was close,” Fry says.

“Fry, fucking move,” Cleo says.

“What?” he asks, turning to look at her, he sees the cranks, the sheer quantity starting to catch up with them.

“Fucking. Move.”

The number of abandoned cars and machinery starts to increase the deeper into the tunnel they go and it slows down the cranks but it slows down Fry’s driving as well. Newt closes the window fully and Cleo just rolls his eyes at him, trying to focus on what’s happening behind them while Thomas focuses on what is coming.

“I think,” Fry starts to say just as a crank leaps at the car and clings to the windshield. “Shit!”

“Shake it,” Thomas and Cleo say immediately. The crank moves its hand from the hold on the bumper and starts to hit onto the glass repeatedly. The glass, slowly, starts to fracture.

“I don’t have the space,” Fry says trying to move between an overturned truck and a shattered car.

“You need to make it work,” Thomas says.

“Put your foot down,” Cleo says.

“Do you want to drive Cleo?” Fry yells. Cleo grabs her bow and reaching over into the drivers seat she jams down onto the accelerator pedal. The truck jolts toward and as Thomas grabs the wheel to swear to the left, the crank comes lose and smashes into the tunnel wall. “Guys!”

“It worked,” Cleo defends, taking her bow back.

“You know, next time,” Fry says.

“Eyes on the road,” Newt reminds him.

“If you’re going to criticize my driving-,” the car hits an uneven tip in the flooring, and slamming into some of the wreckage, it flips.

The front window shatters from being weakened by the crank, one of the doors completely caves upon impact and everyone it thrown to the roof of the car.

Thomas crawls out the car with speed, trying to see how bad their situation is, Frypan tries to kick the driver door open, but it’s bend out of shape. He turns to see if Newt and Cleo are okay to notice Newt leaning over Cleo who is out cold. “Is she alright?” Fry asks.

“I don’t know, she isn’t bleeding from her head or anything,” Newt says.

“Guys, we have company,” Thomas warns them.

“It’s Cleo,” Newt says. “She’s out.”

“Wake her up,” Thomas says.

“How do you expect me to do that?” Newt yells back. Fry climbs out the broken front window and clambers for the shotgun. “Cleo,” Newt says, gently shaking her. “Cleo, I really need you to wake up now, okay? You have always been so tough and so stubborn, I need you to do that now.”

“Newt!” Thomas yells.

“I can’t exactly move her!” Newt says. “Cleo, come on. Cleo.”

_Cleo is looking over The Glade, she is sat in the watch tower, sharpening some arrows she is making out of branches. She hears a commotion and it draws her eyes from her work. She sees Alby trying to follow someone across the grass. A girl with long brown curls. “What the…?” Cleo whispers to herself._

“Cleo,” Thomas yells as the cranks start to catch up.

“Cleo, please,” Newt says softer now, all the concern so clear as his voice stumbles even on the simplest of syllable. “Please Cleo, we need you, I need you.”

“I,” Cleo says, very slowly starting to move.

“She’s waking up,” Newt says.

“Can she wake up faster?” Fry asks.

_“Cleopatra, can you come here?” Ava asks. Cleo is sat leaning on Mary as Mary reads to her. She looks disappointed to see her mother, but after a little encouraging nudge from Mary, she gets up. “This is Marie,” Ava says, stepping aside and showing Cleo a girl her age with sweet eyes and dark curls. Marie looks a little surprised to hear her name, like it wasn’t really hers but she nods and offers her hand to Cleo. “Can you show her to the others?”_

_“Cleo,” Cleo says taking Marie’s hand. Her mother gives her a look, “Patra…” she adds and her mother nods, leaving._

_“Nice to meet you Cleopatra,” Marie says._

_“Please, just Cleo.” Cleo says. “Please.”_

“Cleo” Newt says. Cleo opens her eyes.

“Newt,” she grabs his arm.

“You good?” Thomas yells.

“We need to move,” Newt says. “Can you?” Cleo nods and Newt tries to help her out the car.

“Newt,” she says again.

“Are you hurting?” He asks. Cleo glares at him as she tries to get the words out but her head is spinning. “Cleo.” She puts a finger to his lips to stop him talking. The pressure in her chest making the words even harder to come out than the spinning.

Every memory of Marie, that had been just out of view in her mind all this time, floods her mind. All the blanks, all the half memories starting to weave their way into her consciousness. Marie at the lab, the way they would talk and have breakfast together, the way Newt looked at Marie, the way Marie would stay late to keep Cleo company.

The Glade, the way Marie walked away from the boys as she left the box, the way she sung with her around the campfire, the way she sung to her after a nightmare, the way Marie chased all the darkness away. It all comes back to her upon impact with the roof of the car.

Wicked, the way she fought her way to Marie at the facility, The Scorch, the rings, Curie, all of it. Cleo feels like she is waking up from a very long, very foggy dream.

“Cleo,” he tries.

“Shut up,” Cleo snaps finally. She reaches for her bow and sees what happened in the crash. It snapped. She wants to yell at Newt about how shooting them earlier would have definitely been more helpful now. But instead, she grabs the arrows and as a crank crawls over the flipped car she drives the arrow into its head with her hand. The crank falls dead and all the boys look at her, stunned and a little scared. She puts an arrow through another as they try to pull her forward. She looks at her hand and she sees it’s gone. The ring is gone.

In the crash, she didn’t just remember Marie, she remembered all of it, every memory Wicked had ever taken away, even ones she didn’t realise they had taken away. Ones about fire and ash. Ones about Gally. Ones about her father.

She looks at the mess of the crash, the cranks coming at them and then she sees it, amongst the shattered glass.

“Cleo,” Thomas yells at her. But she runs back towards the danger, and grabs her ring from the ground, putting it back on her finger. A crank lunges at her and she takes her final arrow and in one swing she impales it midair.

“I,” Cleo says catching her breath. “Remember.”

“Remember what?” Newt asks.

“I remember it all” Cleo says. “Now fucking run.”


	19. Not Just Minho

They take a turn and gain a small amount of ground on the cranks chasing them, but Cleo and Newt can’t keep Thomas and Fry’s pace. “Guys,” Thomas yells.  
“I am going as fast as I can greenie,” Cleo yells at him. Fry lets out a small chuckle.  
“Nice to have her back I guess,” Fry says. Thomas side eyes him.  
“Remind me of that when she isn’t yelling at me,” Thomas says.  
“When isn’t she yelling at you?” Fry asks. Cleo trips and Newt catches her.  
“We are screwed, can you not smile so much,” Cleo tells Newt.  
“It’s good to see you,” Newt says.  
“You’ve seen me plenty,” Cleo says. Newt, remembering that just because her old memories were back, doesn’t mean everything disappears from the last few months. “I’m screwing with you, don’t look so worried.” Cleo laughs.  
“You aren’t mad at me?” he asks. Cleo laughs, contemplating pulling the gun out, but deciding against it.  
“Oh, no, I am mad at you,” Cleo says, “just not for the reasons you think.”  
Cleo looks up to notice Thomas and Fry have stilled to a stop in front of them. “We are fucked,” Fry says as cranks start to approach from the front. One moves towards Cleo and in one quick flip of the shotgun, Fry puts a bullet in it’s head stopping it cold in it’s tracks.  
“Nice shot Fry,” Thomas says. Cleo smiles at him.  
“Thanks,” she says. He nods at her.  
“No worries,” he says, “but I don’t think we really have the bullets for all this lot.”  
“No, I only have four,” Cleo says pulling her gun out.  
“This is a grim place to die,” Thomas says. Cleo laughs.  
“I can think of worse company,” she says.  
“We go down swinging,” Fry says.  
“Always,” Cleo starts to point her gun at the nearest crank, back-to-back with Newt. She feels his hand reach for hers and she lets him take it.  
“Hey Cleo,” Newt says.  
“No, don’t do it,” Cleo says.  
“Please don’t, I don’t want to die hearing this,” Fry says.  
“Mate,” Newt says.  
“No last words,” Cleo says. Newt tries to tell her anyway but she isn’t listening, amongst the sounds of the cranks and Fry shooting the shotgun, she can hear the low growl, the rumble of stones under tire. She starts to put her gun away and Newt looks at her, dumbfounded.  
“What are you-,”  
“Save your bullets Fry,” Cleo says.  
“What?” he asks. Bertha turns the corner, crushing several cranks underneath as Jorge drives.  
“Brenda’s here,” Cleo says. Brenda, pulls herself through the open roof and unloads bullets into a bunch of the cranks, and they drop to the floor, dragging some of the still kicking with them into a pile.  
“Hey princess,” Brenda yells. “Thought I better come rescue your sorry ass.”  
“You better,” Cleo calls to her, “and the names Cleo, and I am no princess.”  
“Cleo,” Brenda says, smile widening. “Cleo, you sneaky-,”  
“Everyone! Get in the damn car,” Jorge yells at them. They all climb in and Brenda still shooting as they drive, moves aside to accommodate Cleo in the same space.  
“I also promise I won’t endanger myself to save you if you get yourself in trouble,” Brenda says, “I won’t die for you.”  
“I was full of shit, wasn’t I?” Cleo says. Brenda laughs and hugs her.  
“Good to have you back Cleo,” Jorge says hitting the acceleration. “Now let’s get the fuck out of this tunnel.”

“You nearly lasted a whole day” Jorge says as they hit the open road again. Brenda is leaning over the passenger seat, arms wrapped around the headrest, staring at Cleo who is sat between Thomas and Newt. Thomas thinking the glare in her eyes is aimed at him, starts to apologies. In all the time they have spent together Thomas and Brenda have become good friends, and he feels he owes her an apology.  
“I’m sorry, we didn’t want to drag you into this,” Thomas starts.  
“He means thank you” Fry says talking over Thomas. Brenda lets her eyes move from Fry to Thomas and then back to Cleo, glare unchanging.  
“I’m more mad at her, thought you were better than that princess, leaving without saying goodbye” Brenda says.  
“Please,” Cleo says, “I was coming back.”  
“Not if you died in that tunnel,” Brenda says, Cleo nods and clambers over Thomas to sit next to the window. The boys are looking at her. She knows they are expecting a thank you to Brenda, but honestly her mind isn’t really with them. Now the adrenalin isn’t pulsing through her anymore, and she is as safe as she gets in this world, she is thinking clearly. “Cleo, you okay?” Brenda’s voice is softer now, and she reaches out with gloved hand to hold hers.  
“Yeah,” Cleo says. “When we crashed it all came back, I just need to get things clear in my head, you know?”  
“I do,” Thomas says. Jorge without saying another word leans forward and pushes a CD into the player. Cleo smiles a little, looking at her own reflection in the glass window as the outside rolls by.  
“Let the girl think,” Jorge says. “And appreciate this.”  
“This is old music,” Brenda says.  
“All music is old music now.”  
“This is extra old.”

Curie is supposed to be watching Minho, but he is in simulation and that confuses her programming too much, she always asks if she is supposed to help him, like she forgets each time that he isn’t in danger, Teresa has begun to call it a glitch and Janson is trying to not let Ava believe that. So, Janson currently has her watching the surveillance. And she is watching it very closely, like is expecting something. Like she knows something is coming.  
“If you could, I would say you looked worried,” Teresa says checking in on her.  
“Caution and worry aren’t the same thing, it is within my programming to be cautious, more so than the average,” she looks at her, “personnel.”  
“You think something is going to happen?” Teresa asks. “I thought you told Ava the odds were very low, because the success rate of any kind of attempt was so low that considering it would be overwhelming unwise.”  
“It would be, but have we witnessed the subjects be wise overall, they act on emotion, so they don’t consider the statistics, they could know they are going to fail and yet they will still try,” Curie says, “it is what makes them so dangerous.”  
“They don’t have anything to lose,” Teresa says.  
“No Teresa, they have so much to lose, and they want it back.”  
“You think they are coming for Minho?”  
“Not just Minho.”

Cleo remembers the lab and it is so strange to her, she remembers Newt before, and she remembers how much she loved him. She remembers the way it hurt that he never looked at her. He remembered the look he had in his eyes when he saw Marie. She thinks about Marie’s first night and the way she had left to convince Gally to give her some drinks and she had returned to Marie and Newt talking, she remembers Newt’s eyes on her, like she was familiar and the way she hadn’t thought anything of the way Marie had watched him. In hindsight so much made sense. With the benefit of memory, a lot made sense.  
Cleo traces her hand over the leather sleeves of Mary’s jacket and she remembers Mary so clearly, and she feels the sadness of her death at full volume. She starts to take the jacket off in a messy speed and Thomas becomes concerned but doesn’t interrupt her. She tries to listen to what the others are saying.  
“I don’t know, it’s going to have high security and with your tags,” Jorge says.  
“But Cleo doesn’t have a tag,” Brenda reminds him.  
“Marie took it out,” Cleo says. Brenda looks over at her.  
“What?” Brenda asks.  
“Marie took my tag out, it is why I don’t have one,” Cleo says.  
“Oh shit, you really remember everything don’t you?” Brenda asks.  
“Marie took it out?” Thomas asks. “Why?”  
“It was irritating me, I was a test for it, they didn’t put it in right, I tried to rip it out myself and I just made a mess, so when Marie found me, covered in my own blood and hopelessly trying to pull it out my neck, she helped me, she removed it, she helped cover the wound until it healed and she kept it a secret. It was one of the reasons Marie and I became friends.”  
“And no one ever checked it?” Newt asks. Cleo shrugs.  
“No one had any reason so suspect anything like that would or could happen,” Cleo says. “They really trusted us to be dumb children back then.”  
Cleo folds the jacket into a bag and tries to steady herself again. She catches Newt’s glance and her heart nearly stops. She has three different sets of memories fighting to sit as they should in her mind, and Newt is one of the most complicated factors of all. She loves him in all the memories, her love for him doesn’t waver, not in old her, not in this her, not in the mix in between, but his responses have been different to every version of her. And it is hard for her to know what to do when her heart is screaming at her but her head is still trying to find its voice.  
Then there is Marie. She is torn between screaming and crying. Remembering her all at once was a head rush. She cannot come to grips with version of herself that couldn’t remember her, she feels like she betrayed herself, like she betrayed Marie and she knows she tried, she knows she did what she could to get back to her, to help, but she also knows that she was a coward. That a part of her, a version of her, didn’t want to be the person she had become. The weight of a younger version of herself not wanting to see the person she had become hurt her in a way she never expected. She loved Marie, she always has and she was letting her down. And she let Curie go- she wouldn’t make that mistake again. She would find Curie and she would tear that programming from her Marie if it was the very last thing she did. She was getting her girl back. Whatever it took.  
And then… there was Gally.  
Knowing what she knows now, remembering Gally at the lab, remembering all they were and all he meant to her, all he did for her. If she hadn’t hurt before knowing what she did to him, she hurt now. He saved her, he protected her from Ava. He protected her from herself. He protected her from her nightmares and the dark. He was her best and at times her only friend. She didn’t realise he loved her then, much like she didn’t realise he loved her in The Glade, really, truly, loved her, until it was too late to save him. And she realized the most important thing, the thing she had tried to bury and ignore and pretend wasn’t the case, the thing she barely was willing to talk about or think about. She loved Gally too, not just because he was there when she needed someone, even though he was. Not just because every time Newt turned away from her, he was the one who was there and ready to take on whatever she had to throw at him, even though he was. But because something about Gally, something she didn’t understand, drew her towards him. In the lab that had resulted in the kind of friendship she needed and more. In The Glade that had manifested in a kind of annoyance that was almost loathing until it wasn’t. But it didn’t matter. Because she had loved him, maybe not with the same intensity or clarity she loved Newt. But she loved him in a way she couldn’t hide from herself anymore. A way that made every moment she hadn’t told him, even more painful. Every time she remembers she didn’t save him, worse. Every time she realise she could have, makes her feel like her heart might collapse in on itself. Because she loved him, and she still does and she killed him, and she cannot take that back, and the only person who really knew, or could ever really understand, isn’t herself right now.  
She feels lost. She feels confused and she wants to reach for Marie, but she isn’t there to take her hand.  
Cleo, fearing she might cry, turns her head to the window. She stares past the glass and into the dust that passes with the speed. In the emptiness that they pass, she sees him, standing just out of reach. Gally.  
“Shit,” she whispers.  
“You okay?” Newt asks. Cleo fakes a smile and nods.  
‘Fine’ she thinks, ‘just crazy again.’


	20. Isn't Active

_-Flashback-_

_“What about Thomas?” Cleo asks, finishing her third cookie. Both Marie and Cleo should be doing other things in other places, but they have lost track of time and are just sat, Cleo on the table and Marie on a chair, talking._

_“What about Thomas?” Marie asks. Cleo gives her a look and a smirk._

_“I see the looks,” Cleo says. “I am not blind.” Marie blushes a little._

_“I-, I do not have the time to think about boys,” Marie says._

_“Girls?” Cleo asks. Marie gives her a smile._

_“Only you,” she says._

_“My line,” Cleo pouts. Newt passes them on the way to another room and he nods. Cleo knows it isn’t at her but she waves back anyway._

_“What about you?” Marie says._

_“Romance only exists in books” Cleo says. Marie rolls her eyes._

_“Newt is real,” she says._

_“And he likes you,” Cleo says. Marie shakes her head._

_“No, he doesn’t,” Marie mumbles, they both know she is lying but don’t say anymore about it._

_“So… Thomas,” Cleo tries again after a moment._

_“Cleo,” Marie says shoving her off her seat. “Stop it.”_

_“You must like him a little, I’ve seen you two,” Cleo says._

_“I never said I didn’t like him,” Marie says. “I just said I don’t have time to think about boys. Or if I could-”_

_“Not a question of if Marie, just which one,” Cleo says._

_“Shut your pretty face,” Marie threatens her, holding a cookie as if she would hit her with it._

_“There is always Minho, or-,”_

_“Seriously, stop it,” Marie says, but she is still smiling._

_“You are in high demand,” Cleo laughs. There’s a knock on the open door and both girls look up to see Gally in the doorway._

_“Cleo, can I borrow you?” he asks. Cleo looks at him for a moment, and then nods, turning back to Marie._

_“Saved by Gally, but you won’t get so lucky next time, I am not done talking about this,” Cleo laughs._

_“I am sure you aren’t,” Marie says as she leaves._

_Cleo follows Gally around the corner and he stops, leaning on the wall. “What do you need?” Cleo asks with a smile._

_“I have something for you,” he says. Cleo bites back a smile._

_“Do you now?” she asks. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bar of chocolate and she looks stunned. “How the hell?”_

_“You don’t want to know the answer to that,” Gally says._

_“Who’d you steal it from?” Cleo asks, delicately trying to take it from his hands, but he keeps a tight hold on it. He smiles down at her, the way he towers over her, making her tilt her head up to look at him properly._

_“You don’t want me to answer that,” he repeats._

_“Is there a magic word?” Cleo asks, trying to take it from him again. He smiles placing a hand on her shoulder._

_“Maybe,” he says. “Or maybe I just want you to smile at me a little longer.”_

_“Shut up,” she says and takes the chocolate bar from his hands. “You got this from the office, didn’t you?”_

_“Would you think more or less of me if I say yes?” he asks._

_“I couldn’t think less of you, no matter what you did,” Cleo says._

_“The bar that low?”_

_“Not at all,” Cleo says, taking a square of chocolate before putting the rest in her pocket. “Quite the opposite. I don’t think there is anything you could do that would make me think poorly of you.”_

_“Really?” Gally asks._

_“I don’t mean to interrupt whatever this is, but quite a few people are looking for you Cleo,” Newt says. Cleo only realizing he was there as he spoke, almost jumps where she stands. “But you should probably be wherever you are supposed to be, you don’t want your free roaming pass revoked.”_

_“Thanks Newt,” Gally says, a sigh in his voice._

_“I am sure Ava just wants something,” Cleo sighs. “See you later Gally.”_

_“Later Cleo.”_

The memory plays in her head and she can’t let is pass, she replays it over and over. Because she did see him later, but it was much later, and she didn’t recognize him. That was the last time she saw Newt, Gally or Marie until The Maze.

“What is it?” Brenda whispers. All the boys are asleep and Jorge is focused on the road.

“What is what?” Cleo asks.

“When you woke up and you didn’t remember you, or me,” Brenda says, “you had this look in your eyes, and it was so different to the look I was used to. Because that Cleo and you had lived such different lives, she was still pretty impressive, brave when she needed to be, but she didn’t have what you had, that same hunger to survive. That I guess is what I saw in your eyes, your need to get through it all. I figured when you came back, your eyes would look the same, but they don’t. they don’t look like yours or hers, they don’t even look like something in between. They look different entirely.”

“Still brown, aren’t they?” Cleo asks.

“You’re deflecting,” Brenda says.

“It feels like I’ve lived three lives Brenda, I think I’m allowed to seem a little different.”

“I would be worried if you didn’t, I just want you to talk to me about it.”

“When we found Marie after Janson took her, when she said all she said because of that serum, I thought about how much of an awful friend I must be,” Cleo says, “to put her through that. To make her think she wasn’t allowed to have feelings because I might be upset by them.”

“That wasn’t how I think it went, I think she knew you would-,”

“She knew that I would choose her happiness over mine,” Cleo says, “and she tried to do that for me. And I thought, well, I am awful, and I don’t deserve her, but she loves me, and I love her, and if we have each other, other love wouldn’t matter, we would be enough. And then I lost her to Teresa and Curie and that fucker Janson. And I didn’t know what to do and before I could actually be any use, I lost her entirely, I became someone who didn’t know she existed, didn’t remember her at all and didn’t care.”

“You cared-,”

“I cared about making you guys happy, about stopping you looking at me like I was dying, or dead, or an imposter,” Cleo says, “I was selfish until I started to remember. Only as I became more and more like me, did I really care about remembering Marie.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that,” Brenda says.

“I never wanted to remember who I was, because I told myself that didn’t matter, but I also didn’t want to remember any pain I might have suffered because id had enough of it, or worse, I didn’t want to remember being someone I preferred to the person I became,” Cleo says, “luckily all I learned was I was worse back then.”

“You were a kid-,”

“I’m still a kid, but at least I won’t let my friend destroy herself over my feelings, but she was willing to, that girl, in the lab, she knew about Marie’s feelings for Newt, and she said nothing, what kind of person does that make me?”

“I,” Brenda’s eyes move to Thomas as he sleeps. “I don’t think you can blame yourself for who you care about. Your heart doesn’t care if they love someone else or someone else loves them. It isn’t voluntary or easy to pick and choose. We just, get what we get and we have to make do.”

“So, I came between the boy I liked and the girl I adored, because I was selfish and if I couldn’t have him, neither could she? And you’re trying to defend that?” Cleo asks.

“I don’t think that’s what you were doing,” Brenda says. “I spent a lot of time with you Cleo, you know that, and she wasn’t like that. She was a little different to you, but she wasn’t heartless. She wasn’t like that.”

“I am her, I know what I was like.”

“No, you’re picking a fight with yourself because you feel helpless, and you can’t take it out on anyone else because there is no one here to blame for the real reason you feel lost. So you are trying to take it out on you. And I won’t stand for it, not for a minute.”

“But I left without you.”

“Because you wanted to protect, my already condemned ass,” Brenda says. “You can’t fool me Cleo, you are all heart and you always have been.”

“You need to not treat me like I am free of sin,” Cleo says.

“You aren’t, you have pulled some tricks Cleo,” Brenda says, “but you have to remember, we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world where everyone is either trying to use everyone else, or kill them. You can’t hold yourself to storybook standards in a world that would kill you before you stepped out the door.”

“Marie is my best friend, and I let this happen to her,” Cleo says finally. Brenda sighs, like she had been holding her breath waiting for her to actually say what she meant.

“No, you didn’t, you did everything you could to protect Marie, everything.”

“Not everything.”

“You killed for her.”

“I should have killed Teresa.”

The outer city, the city before the wall reminds Cleo of where they met Marcus, except busier. “Okay, we need to think this through,” Thomas says. Cleo moves to stand next to Brenda and Thomas nods. “We need to stick together but we need to not draw attention to ourselves.”

“Brenda and I will stick to the back of the group,” Cleo says, “we are both small, inconspicuous.”

“Speak for yourself tiny,” Brenda says. Cleo throws her a look.

“Taller than me doesn’t make you tall,” Cleo says. Jorge moves in front of Brenda, like an overprotective father. Thomas nods and Newt and Fry fall in line behind him.

“No one get separated okay?” Fry asks.

“I’ll try,” Cleo says.

“We don’t know what kind of people are here, we don’t know what we are facing, we just have to be careful about this,” Thomas says. Cleo looks up and sees a camera moving.

“And keep low,” Cleo mumbles, turning away from the camera. “This whole place is being watched.”

“Janson,” Curie says over the static. “The sensors picked something up.”

“I’ll be right there,” his voice crackles through. Curie stares at the screens. The sensors have picked up Thomas’s tag and one of the screens is blinking with a red light. But that isn’t what Curie is interested in, over on another screen the security cameras have picked up some images. Cleo, walking through the crowd, is one of those images. Curie looks at the photo on the screen, trying to see if she can tell anything from it. But Cleo just looks like she did the last time she saw her, determined in whatever it is she is planning on doing. A determination that if Curie had the capacity to worry, she might be worried about.

Janson strolls in a few moments later, with a sense of purpose and a frown. “Tell me,” he instructs.

“Tags were picked up by the South Wall about an hour ago,” one of the security team tells him. “We have visuals on at least three subjects.”

“Cleopatra is with them,” Curie says pulling up the photo on the far screen.

“Her tag isn’t active,” the security guy tries to justify.

“It isn’t working or it is missing,” Curie says. “I don’t know why but it’s been proven before, her tag won’t activate.”

“What would you like us to do sir?” Another assistant asks.

“Get the defenses online,” he says quickly.

“All of them?” one man asks.

“All the inactive ones,” Janson says before turning to Curie.

“My orders?” she asks.

“Get whatever it is that you will need Curie, you have a mission,” Janson says.

“Does this supersede previous orders?” Curie asks.

“Yes,” Janson says. Janson looks at her, aware that she is likely their very best chance of obtaining the subjects with minimal damage or disruption, but it won’t stop him sending out more teams. “I need you to locate the immunes.”

“Base orders activated,” Curie says, but Janson is barely listening, he is already selecting other men to send out after her. Just for caution.

“Curie, make sure you find them, don’t come back until you do.”

“Understood.”

Cleo looks up and sees another camera and she just wishes more and more she had her bow, she knows it wouldn’t be subtle just the satisfaction of shooting down the cameras might just be worth it. Even if she didn’t get to see the look on Janson’s face, but she could picture it.

Brenda pulls her to the side more, closer to a building and she is about to ask why when a couple of trucks start to move through the crowd. Cleo stands behind Jorge and Thomas, so small she can barely see what is happening. But Thomas seems fixated on something, she follows his gaze and watches men and women in masks, sat on the trucks move past. One seems almost to look at Thomas, and Cleo feels a strange desire to walk out, to look closer, but she fights it. She feels drawn forward and it is familiar feeling, a feeling she gets when she sees things that aren’t there. A feeling she had in The Scorch when she saw Gally, the feeling she had in the food hall, the ruins, the sand. Every moment she had thought she saw Gally just to be reminded that he is long gone, and that’s on her. She finds herself watching them drive away for a little too long, and she is pulled back into reality by Brenda.

“You with me princess?” Brenda asks. Cleo nods.

“I’m here,” she says. Cleo sees Thomas encouraging them to keep moving and she follows, keeping her eyes to the ground.

_-Flashback-_

_“What do you miss?” Cleo asks through the door._

_“What do I miss?” Gally asks, confused by the question._

_“About life before, whatever your life was, you must miss something.”_

_“Not really,” Gally says._

_“Come on, there must be something,” Cleo says._

_“I know it might be hard to believe, as much as this place is… a lot, my life before wasn’t exactly great, and at least now I have company,” Gally says. Cleo feels a sadness in her heart as he speaks._

_“What about family?” Cleo asks._

_“I don’t really remember family,” Gally says. She is quiet now, for a while. So Gally decides to ask her. "What about you, what do you miss?”_

_“The way my dad would dance around the kitchen,” Cleo says. “I miss him, obviously, but I miss that, he would hold my hands and let me stand on his feet, and he would laugh.”_

_“I understand why you miss him.”_

_“I’m sorry you have no one to miss.”_

_“I’m not,” Gally leans his back on the door. “I do have someone to miss, just not from back then.”_

_“Yeah?” Cleo asks._

_“I miss you whenever you aren’t around.”_

_“Gally?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“Thank you.”_

_“What for?”_

_“Being my friend.”_

Teresa watches Minho, he is screaming and she doesn’t even seem phased. She knows what he is seeing now, she made the mistake of asking and they made the mistake of telling her. It doesn’t make a difference. She stands by what she did and is still doing, but it makes it harder to watch. But with the news of Thomas being seen on the security outside the wall, Teresa feels it is best to remind herself of what she is doing and why she is doing it. So, she watches Minho, and reminds herself of all she thinks is in the name of saving the world.

There are people gathering like a riot. Masses outside the walls but at a distance, like they know too close and the consequences are worse for them. Thomas, Newt and Fry start to move forward but Cleo feels a danger and she stops in her tracks. She watches Brenda and Jorge as they don’t notice she has stopped. “I don’t think,” Cleo starts.

“Probably wise,” Curie says from behind her. Cleo feels herself grow cold, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. She recognizes her voice now, she remembers it, like a lullaby.

“Marie,” she whispers.

“No, not Marie,” Curie says.

“Curie,” Cleo corrects herself.

“You knew that,” Curie says. Cleo turns around reaching for her gun.

“You won’t use that,” Curie says confidently.

“What are you doing here?” Cleo asks.

“I have been sent to find the immunes,” Curie says. Cleo watches her, waiting for kicker, waiting for something to happen, but Curie just stands.

“Is that your order?” Cleo asks. “To find the immunes?”

“You see the mistake Janson made, don’t you?” Curie asks. “You always were smart.”

“He never said to retrieve us,” Cleo says. “But wait- why wouldn’t you?”

“My base programming requires me to protect the immunes,” Curie says.

“And you have realized that Wicked, doesn’t have the best intentions?” Cleo asks.

“It has been… decided, that Wicked is no longer safe,” Curie says.

“If you want to protect the immunes,” Cleo says. “Give Marie back.”

“Marie is not immune,” Curie says.

“That is not what I meant, and programming or not, you know that,” Cleo snaps.

“Marie is not assistance in protecting the immunes,” Curie says.

“Give her back to me,” Cleo says angrier now.

“What makes you think anything in my programming would even allow for that?” Curie asks. Cleo wants to scream at her, wants to do something but she doesn’t know what or how and she starts to feel the crowd moving around them. She can’t see Thomas anymore but she sees the masked men from before, she starts to hear the gunfire. Large missile guns propped on the top of the wall start to fire on the rioting crowd. Curie, aware of the other immunes in danger starts to move towards the gunfire.

“Stop,” Cleo says, aware that Curie does not care what damage comes to her, she is only programmed to protect the immunes. And if something happens to her, it happens to Marie. But Curie just keeps moving into the crowd. Into the gunfire, knowing that Cleo will follow her to the ends of the earth as long as she is Marie.


	21. I Won't Do It Again

Curie is fast weaving through the crowd and Cleo just about keeps up until Brenda grabs her with both hands. “Cleo!” she yells. “Where did you go?”

“Brenda,” Cleo tries to start explaining.

“You should be dead by now,” Curie says turning to look at Brenda. “The virus should have taken you, why aren’t you dead?” Curie is analyzing her, she knows Mary helped her but she thought that would have likely stopped working by now, with the intel Mary left with she didn’t have the progress on the serums like Wicked do now.

“What the actual fuck is she doing here?” Brenda asks reaching for a gun. Cleo taking a long look at Curie, pushes Brenda’s weapon down.

“Don’t trust her but currently she is trying to help, I think,” Cleo says.

“Cleo that isn’t Marie,” Brenda reminds her.

“I know that, I know.”

“You should have turned,” Curie says.

“Look, Curie, Brenda is showing no signs of infection, Brenda is not a threat,” Cleo says before turning to Brenda, “and right now… Curie isn’t a threat either. But those guns, are.”

_-Flashback-_

_“You look worried,” Marie says, but Cleo can tell her concern is barely masking her own sadness. Cleo wonders if she is sad for the same reasons, maybe, or maybe not. Marie knows more than Cleo and Cleo knows that. She also trusts Marie, but knows there are things she keeps from her, probably because Ava tells her to, and everyone does what Ava says._

_“Some friends just, I haven’t seen them,” Cleo says._

_“That worries you?” Marie asks._

_“If someone left and never came back, wouldn’t it worry you?”_

Janson is striding, practically a run down a corridor. A heavily armed guard joins him. “Sending out the patrols sir,” he tells Janson.

“Good, no one comes back until they are found, including Curie,” Janson says.

“Those were the instructions you gave,” the guard nods.

Janson watches them leave and considers all the ways this could play out. He thinks of Curie and all he has accomplished with her as she is, and all the difficulty in getting there. Curie wasn’t his creation, but being his daughter, he believes to an extent that it is thanks to him. His own skills never seemed to pass to Marie, but they passed to Curie, and Curie would succeed where Marie had failed. He was confident in that.

_-Flashback-_

_“Cleopatra,” Ava’s voice is filled with rage as she speaks, but the quiet rage, that only a daughter could recognize._

_“Yes?” Cleo asks, looking up from the game of cards she is playing._

_“What are you doing?” she asks her. Cleo shows her the cards._

_“I was teaching Minho-,”_

_“Minho… Oh dear, Cleopatra come with me,” she instructs._

_Mary and Ava debate back and forth as Cleo listens how Cleo should or shouldn’t interact with the other children. How it is beneficial, how it is detrimental._

_“She needs company, Ava, she needs some semblance of a childhood,” Mary snaps._

_“And you really think, these children, with all the reasons they are here, are the right people for her to bond with?” Ava asks. Mary looks like Ava slapped her, and turns away. “You think I’m cruel, don’t you Mary.”_

_“I don’t know what I think of you anymore Ava,” Mary says taking Cleo’s hand. “But she will play and talk and bond with them Ava, this is her home now much like it is theirs, you can’t keep them from her, she needs company.”_

_“She has Bessie.”_

_“She needs company her own age.”_

_“Find her a,” she pauses choosing her words carefully as Cleo watches her, listening, “find her someone we don’t need.”_

_“No,” Mary says. “Cleo makes her own choices, and unlike you, I let her.”_

_“You aren’t her mother,” Ava reminds Mary._

_“No, and some days you aren’t either.”_

Thomas, Newt and Fry are running back away from the gunfire, when they see them, Brenda, Jorge, Cleo and Curie, in the chaos. “Marie?” Thomas says before he can stop himself. Cleo sees him first and just shakes her head.

“It’s not Marie,” Fry says.

“Then what the hell is going on?” Thomas says. Curie grabs him and moves him out the way of an explosion.

“She is, on our side, sort of,” Brenda says.

“You can point a gun at me if it helps,” Curie says. Cleo throws her a look.

“You don’t have to trust her, we don’t trust her,” Cleo says quickly, “but she is just programmed to protect us right now, Janson fucked up and she isn’t required to bring us back.”

“How do you know that?” Thomas asks. Cleo looks at Curie. “She isn’t Marie, we have no reason to trust her, and she is probably going to try to stop us.”

“I think she isn’t lying,” Cleo says, “even if I don’t trust her. Even if I will do whatever it takes to get Marie back. I don’t think we have the time or the ability to doubt her honest right now.”

“Don’t let the fact she looks like Marie-,” Newt starts.

“I’m not, but if she wanted to capture us, she could have done that,” they dodge another explosion. “But instead, she approached me to talk-,”

“She knows-,”

“I know what she knows Newt,” Cleo snaps. “But can you just trust my judgment on this one?”

“You thought it was okay to leave Curie be before,” Thomas says.

“I am not making the same mistakes I made with Teresa, I already failed Marie once,” Cleo says. “I won’t do it again.”

“You have limited reasons not to trust me,” Curie says, “it is in my programming to protect you, not do you harm, and as far as I can now tell Wicked intend to do you harm.”

“I can’t believe you are having this argument,” Newt says looking at Cleo.

“I am not saying we accept what Curie is and live with it, I am saying right now, when we are being shot at and trying to get Minho back, we don’t have much in the way of choices,” Cleo says.

“Move,” Curie says, directing them away from the people. The mess. Cleo takes a wrong turn and she and Brenda get separated from the others.

“Fuck,” Brenda says trying to see through the crowd. “Where did they go?”

“I don’t-,” someone grabs Cleo before she can finish what she says and it falls dark.

_-Flashback-_

_Bessie with her toddler curls and big bright eyes walks into the room, dragging someone along with her. “Boy,” she says, so proud of herself. Marie and Cleo look up and see Gally, looking a bit concerned. Cleo laughs._

_“Sorry,” Cleo says as she gets up to detach Bessie’s hand from Gally. “She thinks she is cute.”_

_“She kind of is,” Marie argues. Cleo looks at Gally, he has some mud on his shoes and he looks awkward, which means he has been in the garden._

_“Did she disrupt your… whatever you were doing?” Cleo asks._

_“No, it’s fine, really,” Gally says, “I just had no idea what she wanted, kid scares me.”_

_“Please, she is harmless,” Marie says picking Bessie up._

_“Until she screams,” Cleo points out, “then shield your ears because she could shatter glass.”_

_Cleo returns to her room and looks at the mud Bessie had tracked in earlier, she doesn’t mind. She feels especially bad for Bessie, Bessie who won’t ever remember their dad, Bessie who won’t ever know the difference between what Ava is like and what a parent should be. She sits on her bed, wondering why of all the people Bessie had to bother she bothered Gally. Gally is her best friend, but they haven’t spoken really in a few days, not since… She sighs and reaches for her book and that’s when she sees it, the daisy on the table. Just one, with all it’s petals and perfectly formed. Laying on top of her book. There are plenty of times in the day when someone can get into her room without her knowing, this whole place is filled with doors that are open to everyone, except her, it seems. But she also knows very few people are allowed in the garden, she herself isn’t. And she could only think of one who would know to leave a daisy over any other flower. She picks it up between two fingers and twists it, watching her vision blur as the petals spin._

_“Oh Gally,” Cleo sighs, “what do I do with you?”_

As soon as the truck doors open Jorge lunges at the nearest masked figure, having lost Brenda in the chaos, he also slightly, lost his mind. Brenda, immediately seeing the potential danger rushes over, completely fine.

“Where is she?” He demands, shaking the man he is punching.

“I’m here, I’m here” Brenda starts to yell trying to pull Jorge off the man. “I’m fine.”

“Are you?” he asks, letting the man go and hugging her.

“I am completely fine,” Brenda reassures him. Curie steps out of the van hands behind her back as she walks.

“Unharmed,” Curie says, looking her up and down.

“We are all want the same thing here, we are on the same side” one of them starts to say as he steps past the rest of them. Cleo who has not bothered to move from the truck, hears the voice and becomes worried.

“I know that voice…” she whispers, from dreams and memories and nightmares, from hallucinations and illusions, she knows that voice.

“But I have a question first,” he continues. “Where is she?”

“Where is who?” Thomas asks, “and the who the hell are you, how are you on our side.”

“Cleo,” he says. “Where is Cleo?”

“I’m right here,” Cleo says stepping out of the van confused. All eyes move to her, Newt looks worried for her, and keeps glancing at the one in the mask.

“Cleo,” he says. Cleo is trying not to shake, to give herself away, to show how unnerved she is. She has seen what her mind can do, she thought Newt was Gally before and in her willingness to believe it she almost said a whole bunch of things. So instead, she says nothing.

“Who are you?” Thomas repeats. He takes his mask off and Cleo sees his face and it feels like a gut punch, because she sees Gally. She always sees Gally. She tries to look away but she hears it, Curie.

“I thought she killed you, why aren’t you dead?” Curie asks.

“What?” Cleo asks. She turns to the other. “Are you seeing-? Wait do you guys see Gally too?”

“Oh yeah, he is real” Curie says, recalling Cleo’s tendency to hallucinate. “Not a hallucination this time Cleopatra.”

“Hallucination?” Newt starts but no one is paying him any attention. Cleo is just walking very slowly towards Gally, real Gally, very much living and breathing Gally. She can feel her heartbeat, she can hear it like it is the only sound in the room, thundering in her chest.

“Gally?” she asks, very voice barely even managing to say his name.

“Hey Cleo, miss me?”


	22. Like A Memory

“Hey Cleo, miss me?” he asks. Cleo looks at him and she doesn’t know if she wants to kiss him or punch his lights out. She just keeps looking at him like he might disappear. Gally looks at her, a bit of a cocky smile on his face, like he has won something, and she snaps.  
“You bastard,” Cleo says. She lunges for him, and Marie isn’t there to hold her back. She slams her hands down his chest repetitively.  
“You, mother, fucker,” she says between breathes. One of the other masked men goes to pull her off, but Gally waves a hand to tell him not to. “I thought you were dead.”  
“So did I, when you tried to kill me,” he says.   
“This is Cleopatra?” a girl asks taking off her mask.   
“Oh yeah, this is Cleo,” he says. The girl looks Cleo up and down and tilts her head to the side.  
“Not what I had pictured,” she says.   
“What is that supposed to mean?” Newt asks. But Cleo is still too focused on Gally to be offended.   
“What, no hello kiss?” he teases her.   
“I am going to kill you all over again,” Cleo says. “And this time you will stay dead,” Cleo reaches for her gun, “and this time I will feel no remorse.”  
“She’s kidding,” Curie says, “I think.”  
Gally looks at her, Cleo finally stopped hitting him, “you know,” he says lowering his voice to a whisper. “You’re even prettier than I remember.” She shoves him, into the wall, hard. But he is quick to rebuff, grabbing her wrist and pushing her up against the wall, one hand by her side the other above her. So close. So familiar. Like a memory. “Enough,” he says, jovial tone gone now.   
“I thought you were dead,” she says.   
“I should be,” he says. “But doc said it was like even in shooting me, you were still trying to protect me. You shot up and away, like you tried to miss anything messy, you nicked my lung though, that was a bitch of a fix.”  
“I mourned you,” she says.   
“Well, I am alive,” he replies.   
“Enough lovebirds,” the girl says.   
“Wow,” Cleo says, pushing Gally off her, “I see the confusion, but we aren’t-,”  
“Could have fooled anyone,” Newt says. Cleo and Newt catch each other’s eyes.   
“I don’t,” Cleo stumbles, “I can’t not with you too,” she glares at Newt. “I am fucking spiraling.” Cleo raises a hand to her head and someone tries to help her, she looks to see Curie, scanning her as if to see anything she was capable of doing to help. To protect the immune. “Don’t touch me Curie.” Cleo pulls away from her.   
“Someone want to explain what the whole Curie thing is about, is that Marie or not?” Gally asks.   
“No,” Cleo says.  
“No, it isn’t Marie or not stop talking Gally?” Gally asks.  
“Both,” Cleo says through gritted teeth. She is pulled in so many directions. Remember Gally before, knowing all he did for her, and the stuff she never knew he did for her, and believing him to be dead, and hurting, and mourning, and realizing she had loved him. Seeing him now, was all too much. Especially with Newt looking at her like he is, like she lied or something. But Cleo didn’t lie, he just never asked.   
Thomas, who has been seething with rage since he stepped out the truck, loses it at Gally trying to understand what Brenda explains about Curie. And without thinking he goes to punch him. Cleo is between them before Thomas gets the chance, and she has her gun in her hand. “Don’t” she growls at Thomas and he almost falls back.   
“What he did,” Thomas tries, but he still alarmed at Cleo’s reaction.   
“Was as much my fault as his,” Cleo says, “you want to hit someone, hit me.”  
“You got to hit him,” Newt says.  
“I’m allowed,” Cleo says. “I have my reasons,” her voice cracks and she looks down.   
“He-,” Newt cuts Thomas off.  
“He was stung, remember, it could have been any of us,” Newt says. Cleo catches his eye and he doesn’t understand yet he tries to help her, and it just makes her feel worse.   
“Is that the gun you shot me with?” Gally asks, looking at the gun in her hand. Cleo spins on her heels and yanks the chain she has seen around his neck from under his shirt.  
“This the bullet I shot you with?” she asks, holding the chain out with bullet on full display. He looks a little sheepish.   
“Yes,” he says, but there’s a softness in his eyes the way he looks at her, and she recognizes it. Not from any way he ever looked at her in The Glade, but from how he always looked at her at the lab.  
“You have your memories, don’t you?” Cleo asks. Gally’s expression changes.  
“Do you?” he asks.   
“Maybe,” Cleo says.  
“Does someone want to explain what is going on?” Thomas demands.   
“Isn’t it obvious?” Newt asks.   
“Nothing is obvious,” Thomas says.   
“Gally didn’t come for us because he is on our side, or because he wants to help Thomas, he came for Cleo,” Newt says.   
“That isn’t true,” Cleo says.   
“It partly is,” Gally says. Cleo gives him a look. “But I am actually on your side, I want what you want.” The way he looks at Newt as he says that, feels overly specific in nature.   
Curie is trying to analyses the situation, trying to understand. Nothing in all her files, in all her programming explains why Brenda is okay, why Gally is alive and she is just trying to understand what this means for her priorities, for threat levels, for so many different situations and scenarios.  
“Gally, you got them, we did what you said,” the girl says, “but you have to take them to Lawrence.”  
“Sorry, who are you?” Cleo asks, eyeing her.   
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she says. Cleo feels a rush of rage and Gally is fast to put a hand on her shoulder, redirect the anger, expecting her to lash out at him, but instead she calms, and everyone notices. Even Newt, especially Newt.   
“We saw you die,” Newt says, eyes on Gally.  
“No, you left me to die” Gally says.   
“No,” Cleo says. “No, I…”  
“Not you,” Gally says.  
“How not her? She literally shot you,” Newt says.  
“I know why she did,” Gally says, “it wasn’t her fault.”  
“But you want to blame us for leaving you?” Newt demands. “Why, because you have a crush?”  
“I don’t have a crush on Cleo, Newt,” Gally says. “I’m in love with her.”


	23. Full Of Rage And Fire

Gally realises the words as soon as they leave his mouth. “You, love her?” Newt asks.

“She may never feel the same way but it doesn’t change the facts,” Gally says and walks towards a door. “Just wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Cleo stares at the space he occupied and she stumbles slightly, and Brenda catches her. “Still?” she whispers to herself. “Still?” How could he love her, even now? How could he possibly love her still?

_“You don’t have feelings for me, I know,” he says, but his expression doesn’t change. “And I think I know why.”_

_“Oh?” Cleo asks. “Because being here with you puts me in control of those kind of feelings, and this helps me keep myself in check so I don’t form those kinds of romantic emotions and therefore lose control over myself?”_

_“No,” he says plainly, “it is because you have feelings for someone else.”_

_“I-,”_

_“Don’t try to deny it, there is no point, I have seen the way you look at him, I am not an idiot,” he says._

_“Could have fooled me,” she laughs._

_“And you may have feelings for him, and that’s okay, because you fell for him first, and I don’t deserve you, I know that. But I will be better, and I will deserve you, and then, it won’t matter that you developed feelings for him first, because I will be last.” Cleo thinks he is joking, Cleo doesn’t put any weight into his words, because she honestly believes him to be kidding. So she returns his comment in similar tone._

_“You are wrong,” she smiles “I don’t think I am built to love people Gally.”_

_“Just wait.”_

Thomas looks at Curie, trying to understand how they got here. Curie gives him automatic answers to questions and his rage starts to simmer. He wanted to knock Gally out and he would have, but Cleo got in the way. He wants to find a way to help Marie, to get her back, and he stuck looking at Curie, trying to pretend it doesn’t hurt to see her that way, that it doesn’t tear him apart.

Brenda watches him, seeing him in pain puts her in agony. Cleo is sat against the wall now and half the masked people have disappeared to their lives. “Go,” Cleo whispers.

“What?” Brenda asks.

“Go check on Thomas,” she says.

“Cleo I might be the only person who understands why you are in pain-,”

“He needs you, I’m okay, I know you want to look after him, so look after him,” Cleo says. Reluctantly Brenda goes to Thomas and Thomas starts talking like he needed to breathe. He needed Brenda, Brenda will listen, Brenda will know what to say.

Cleo just stares at her own hands, heart still not slowed down. It hurts in her chest, like an ache. She was so happy, for half a moment when she saw him and realised, he was real, and then all the pain hit like an avalanche.

Brenda grabs Thomas’s hands as he gets a little too over the top with his movements. “I need you to stay calm,” Brenda says, “can you do that?”

“Why?” he asks. “What’s the point?”

“Cleo is seeing the guy she thought she killed, alive and well, after torturing herself over it for months, after thinking she killed someone she knew and cared about for months, and she went through so much and she suffered almost in silene. And after losing Marie- you know how hard that hit her, how hard it hit us all, Cleo is allowed to have this,” Brenda says, “and you are allowed to feel all the things you are feeling right now. Confusion. Betrayal. Heartbreak. Whatever it may be, you are so allowed to feel that. But I need you to be calm, okay? Because I can’t bare to see the people I love in pain and Cleo is in enough pain, so can you do that for me?”

“With Curie standing there like she belongs, and Gally- when does Gally pay for what he did?” Thomas asks.

“I don’t know Thomas, I wasn’t there,” Brenda says.

“I don’t trust him,” Thomas says.

“You don’t have to, you just have to not try and punch him, because I don’t want to see Cleo beat you up.”

_“I know that I am just a distraction,” Gally says placing his hand on the door, “that I am what you use to keep yourself in control of the things you can’t control. I am okay with that,” he pauses, “but you have to be okay with the fact that I am going to do, whatever I can, whatever I need to, to protect you Cleo. Even if you don’t like it, even if you don’t agree, even if you hate me. As long as you’re safe, that is all I care about. I know you may not feel that way about me but I think I have always felt that way about you,” it dawns on Cleo as she leans on the door, listening to him talk, “And I need to protect you, and in this case that means keeping you out of what is about to come. Because I don’t want to see you hurt, not ever.”_

_“Gally, don’t,” she says, but the words barely make it out._

_“I think I am in love with you Cleo, and I am sorry.”_

“He loved her, I thought we already assumed that,” Fry says. Newt just looks angry. “Why are you taking it so hard?”

“Because I don’t think he just loves her,” Newt says.

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you see the way she looked at him?”

“Like what?”

“Like she cared a little too much,” Newt says, “the way she looked at him when he said he loved her, she looked like her heart could stop.”

“She is in shock,” Fry says. “Everyone knows Cleo has feelings for you Newt.”

“What is Marie wasn’t the only reason she was holding back?” Newt asks. “What if it was Gally?”

“You honestly think Cleo, full of rage and fire Cleo, would… what exactly?”

“I don’t know, but she was keeping a secret when we left The Maze, I knew it, but I didn’t want to ask, she was so sad and so wounded. She had just killed someone, or so and everyone thought. She looked so fragile and I just assumed it was because what she went through, but what if I missed the big picture, the big part, the big obvious answer.”

“What, what big obvious answer?”

“It wasn’t that she had shot someone, it wasn’t that she thought she killed or that she was covered in blood. It wasn’t the idea of what she had done. It was because it was Gally.”

_-Flashback-_

_“Why do you like that book so much?” Gally asks pulling it from her hands._

_“Oi,” Cleo says, trying to snatch it back. “Because it is beautiful.”_

_“What is it about?” he asks._

_“Romance,” Cleo says. Gally doesn’t look up from the pages._

_“So this guy,” he says, “the one speaking like some kind of entitled-,”_

_“James,” Cleo says, “his name is James.”_

_“He is the love of this girl’s life?” Gally asks. Cleo shakes her head._

_“No,” she laughs, “not by any means.”_

_“Sounds like he is,” Gally says flipping through the pages. “She sure talks about him like he is.”_

_“She thinks he is, but he isn’t,” Cleo says, her eyes are lighting up now, the way Gally hoped they would. The reason he asked in the first place. He couldn’t care less about this book, about the romances and coffee shops, a world he would never be a part of, but he cares about Cleo and he adores the way she talks when it’s about something like this. Something she cares about._

_“But she is wrong?” Gally asks. Cleo laughs._

_“So wrong, I don’t blame her, James seems perfect, and he is, in his way, he is a great guy, he does almost everything he is supposed to do. He makes her feel the way she is supposed to feel, the way she wants to feel, he loves her, he really does and she loves him back with the same passion,” Cleo says._

_“I thought you said he wasn’t the love of her life,” Gally says._

_“He isn’t, just because he is a great guy and they are great together doesn’t make him the love of her life, she learns that, no matter how much she loves James and she does, she really loves him,” Cleo says, “it doesn’t make him the right man for her.”_

_“It doesn’t make him the wrong one though?”_

_“No, but he is a moment in time,” Cleo says, “he is a pause, a joy, in her life. But he isn’t her ever after.”_

_“This book seems sad, if you waste half the pages on a romance you know isn’t going to work, what’s the point?” Gally asks._

_“She wants to believe there will be a way for it to work, she wants to be with him,” Cleo says._

_“But she isn’t?” he asks._

_“Not by the end,” Cleo says._

_“Who is she with by the end?” Gally asks. Cleo smiles._

_“Why don’t I read it to you, and you’ll find out.”_

“We need to talk about Gally,” Newt says coming to sit with her.

“We already talked about Gally,” Cleo says, refusing to look at him.

“Yeah well, what happened back there looked a little more than him just liking you,” he says.

“What are you implying I lied about?” Cleo asks.

“Your feelings for him,” he says.

“You never asked how I felt about him” Cleo says. Newt looks almost mad.

“How do you feel about him?”

“Then or now?”

“Then?”

“I didn’t know, when I thought I killed him I didn’t know how I felt, but I knew I didn’t want to kill him.”

“And now?”

“I think I was in love with him,” Cleo says. “Somewhere in me, deep down.”

“Do you still feel that way?” Newt asks. Cleo looks at him.

“Do you still love Marie? I know some of your memories have started to come back, I don't know how many but some of them, and from experience I know what a difference a few little memories can make, especially with six months of me like I was, so... Do you still love Marie? Or should I ask do you finally remember loving her?” she asks. It comes out of nowhere and Newt doesn’t know how to respond. But his not response is exactly the answer. “It’s possible to love two people at once Newt.”

“Do,” he tries again, “you still feel that way?” he asks. Gally comes back through the door and Cleo looks at him as he walks over to them.

“I thought he was dead Newt, how could I fall out of love with a dead man?”


	24. Least Of All Me

“Come with me,” Gally says. Cleo gets to her feet and Newt watches her speed, watches her eagerness. Newt doesn’t doubt Cleo’s feelings for him, not now, now with everything that has happened. But he also can’t deny her feelings for Gally. Or his own complicated feelings for Marie, and a life he can’t remember.  
“So, let me get this right, Marie isn’t Marie due to Teresa and Wicked doing some brain washing and Teresa using that brainwashing to bring Wicked to The Right Arm, took Minho and that’s why you want in?” Gally says.  
“Yeah, that is right,” Cleo confirms.   
“I knew Teresa wasn’t to be trusted,” Gally says.   
“I should have let you sacrifice her,” Cleo mumbles.   
“And because of that brainwashing code or whatever Marie now Curie?”  
“Yes.”  
“And Curie is some kind of soldier who protects the immunes, like a bodyguard?”  
“Yes,” Curie cuts in. Gally looks at Cleo a little bit, like he wants to say something but he doesn’t. “Where are you taking us?” Curie asks.   
“Lawrence, so don’t mention any of that, and,” he tilts his head slightly from side-to-side thinking, “just try not to stare okay?”  
“Why would we?” Brenda asks.   
“You’ll see,” Gally opens the door and brings them in. “Just let me do the talking.”  
The room is full of plants, they seem to cover all the sides of the walls and the furniture and at the far side of the room shrouded in shadow stands a man which his back to them. “Gally, who are these people?” he asks.  
“Lawrence these are my friends,” Gally says, “from The Maze.”  
Lawrence steps into the light and his condition becomes clearer, Brenda looks down and away so not to stare at his face. He walks with an IV drip in hand closer to the group. Curie stares, still spinning from Brenda and Gally that she doesn’t even know how to classify Lawrence in this moment. Threat or ally. Problem or unnerving.   
Lawrence looks at Cleo, up and down and he smiles. “I see,” he says.   
“They need help to get into the city,” Gally explains. Lawrence sighs.  
“That is a difficult task Gally,” Lawrence says.   
“Gally says you found a way into the city walls, he says that you could get us in,” Thomas says.   
“Gally should know better than to make promises he can’t keep” Lawrence says. “Besides the wall is only half your problem.”  
“I think I have a way in, I just, I need a test run and it won’t work without Thomas,” Gally says, “I trust these people Lawrence.”  
“You trust her,” Lawrence says gesturing to Cleo. Gally nods. “You look nothing like your mother Cleopatra.”  
“Because I am nothing like her,” Cleo says, “and please, don’t call me that.”  
“Do you know who I am, do you know why I know who you are?” Lawrence asks. Cleo shakes her head. “Wicked may have taken your memories child, but you probably know by now that a lot of people know your face, the daughter of Ava Paige, the face that convinced a whole country that Wicked was safe.”  
“It wasn’t her fault,” Gally says.  
“Oh, I agree, Ava used more than just everyone else children in her games, she even went as far as to use her own,” Lawrence sighs. “Do you know what happened to your sister?”  
“Bessie?” Cleo asks. Gally looks at her, knowing she just confirmed that, at least to some degree she has her memories back. “Do you?”  
“Okay, take two of them, leave the rest with me,” Lawrence says to Gally, ignoring Cleo.   
“Three,” Gally says.  
“Only two of them” Lawrence says.   
“Three,” Cleo says.   
“Don’t argue with me” Lawrence warns her.   
“Cleo won’t not go,” Gally explains.   
“Then get your woman under control” Lawrence says. Cleo feels her hand hovering over her gun.   
“I wouldn’t say that, not to her, trust me if we leave her behind you will regret that, severely” Gally says.   
“Then take her,” Lawrence says.   
“I know these people Lawrence, Thomas and Newt will go, and Cleo will not stay,” Gally says.   
“Who will watch Curie?” Newt asks.   
“Anyone but Cleo” Brenda says with a warning.   
“I don’t like what is being suggested, there,” Cleo says.  
“I go with the majority,” Curie says.   
“Not this time,” Cleo warns her.   
“I protect, I cannot protect-,” Curie starts but Cleo points her gun at herself.   
“Don’t push me Curie, not today,” she warns. Lawrence watches her, holding the gun to her chest. It distracts Curie long enough for Brenda to knock her out.   
“What was that?” Gally asks. Cleo smiles at Brenda.   
“Just, girls supporting girls,” Cleo says.   
“I got you,” Brenda says. “But we seriously need to tie her up or she will put up a hell of a fight.”  
“I don’t doubt that,” Lawrence says. “Okay, take your girl, if she is that stubborn.”  
“I am not,” Cleo tries.   
“Cleo doesn’t belong to anyone, least of all me,” Gally says. Lawrence just smiles.  
“Get what you need Gally, and be quick about it.”

Gally shows the others to a room where they can keep Curie and keep an eye on her, giving her the restraints, they need to hold her, and then he brings Thomas, Newt and Cleo through to another room. “Get whatever you need,” he tells Thomas and Newt gesturing the stuff. “But Cleo you need to come this way.”  
Cleo follows him without questioning but Newt grabs her arm. “You’re just going to follow him?” Thomas asks.   
“You don’t like Gally, you don’t trust Gally, you never did, and that is okay, if that is what you need,” Cleo says, “I don’t say I trust him either. I just, I make my choice Thomas,” she eyes Newt and he lets her go, “let me make them.”  
Cleo follows him through the building, which has tall ceilings in the corridors and very old looking concrete walls, until they reach another room, not unlike the one they were just in, but emptier. “You didn’t bring me here to kill me did you?” Cleo asks. “Though I guess I owe you one…”  
“Cleo I wanted to apologise,” Gally says.  
“Sorry, what?” Cleo asks.  
“I acted like an ass, I acted cocky and out of bounds, I don’t know what you went through and I shouldn’t have acted like that back there, and I shouldn’t have said what I said,” Gally says.   
“Gally you don’t owe me an apology,” Cleo says.  
“Yes, I do,” Gally sighs. He places a hand on the bullet around his neck, without looking at it, like a comfort mechanism. “I don’t want you to think you owe me anything because you shot me. And I know I caused you trouble with Newt back there, I just- I couldn’t keep my mouth shut and I’m sorry. That isn’t fair on you, I told you that I loved you back at the lab and I meant it but I shouldn’t have said it.”  
“You were stung, you didn’t have a clear mind,” Cleo says.  
“No, but I meant it,” Gally says, “and it doesn’t matter that I did, even if it feels like it should. Because you don’t feel the same, you never have and you have always made that clear to me, and I just, keep trying anyway. And that’s on me, you aren’t responsible for what I feel-,”  
“That’s not true,” Cleo says, “so many things about that are wrong. I was sad about Newt when you found me in the woods, when I kissed you, I did that. To make myself feel better, to feel something, and I didn’t know you even liked me at all, but that wasn’t okay.”  
“I knew what I was getting into in The Maze, I knew I was a distraction, but I didn’t stop, I don’t regret it,” Gally says, “even if you could never feel the same way about me, I don’t regret how I feel. I just know it isn’t your job to respond to my feelings. You don’t owe me anything Cleo, not for that, not for shooting me and definitely not for not feeling the same.”  
“Can you please stop assuming you have any idea how I feel,” Cleo says.   
“You made it clear, even before The Maze-,”   
“I never said I didn’t have feelings for you before The Maze,” Cleo says.   
“You didn’t have to,” Gally says. “It is what it is, the one constant that has lasted memories and not. You loved Newt, then and now, and I loved you, then and now, it’s the one thing I can rely on to be true.”  
“You gave Mary your blood to lie to my mother about my immunity,” Cleo says. “You stayed up almost every night and waited by my door in case I had nightmares. You caught me when I fell down stairs and you left daisies on my bedside table because you knew they were my favourite.”  
“I was your friend,” he says.  
“You were more than that and you know it, just because I didn’t see it, just because I couldn’t see what you meant to me doesn’t mean you didn’t mean something,” Cleo says. “You meant so much, and getting those memories back- When I woke up, I had no memories of The Maze, I was the Cleo I was the day before they sent me in. Do you know what the first thing I asked for when I woke up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by people I didn’t know. Thomas, mothers golden boy, and Newt, came in and do you know what I asked for?”  
“What?”  
“I asked for you,” Cleo says. “No one understood why, because no one had the memories I had. But when I woke up scared and alone and confused, I asked for you. Whenever I was in danger, whenever I was scared, I saw you, I thought I was losing my goddamn mind and I didn’t understand it. The guilt, the pain my chest-,”  
“You aren’t immune,” Gally says. “Why does Curie think you are?”  
“I know,” Cleo says, “I know that, but no one else does okay? Curie can’t know.”  
“But-,”  
“Curie can’t know, promise me” she isn’t even mad that he cut her off, she isn’t even mad that he isn’t seeming to listen to what she is trying to tell him. She just needs him to promise her.   
“I promise, I won’t tell anyone,” he says. There is quiet for a moment, and they can hear footsteps down the hall and Cleo gives up trying to say it. She doesn’t know what the point is. It would only complicate things. It would only make everything so much more painful and complex than it already is. And then there’s Newt. Newt who she loves so much. But more importantly, there is Marie and how could Cleo after everything she has done, be selfish when Marie is still lost? She tries to put her priorities in order, save Marie, protect Marie, everything else comes after that.   
But she still owes Gally an apology.  
“Gally,” Cleo says, her turns, looking at her, unsure of what to expect. She walks up to him and kisses him, hard. “I am sorry, that is how I should have greeted you.”  
“The apology?” he asks with a smile.   
“Maybe that too,” Cleo says. He smiles for a moment, and then he notices Newt in the doorway and he pulls back from Cleo.   
“I don’t mean to interrupt whatever this is,” Newt says. Gally sees it, in his face, the confusion and just like that he remembers he has been gone for a lot of months, and a lot can change.  
“It wasn’t whatever you think it was, that’s for sure,” Gally says. Cleo doesn’t understand why Gally is trying to protect her, defend her as if she needed it, as if she was in the wrong. “Get Thomas and follow me, I will show you where we are going.”  
Newt pauses to try and speak to Cleo, but Gally hurries him along, “come on, get the greenie, we don’t have time.”


	25. Tommy Loves Trains

_-Flashback-_

_“Do you think she is pretty?” Cleo asks. She is watching Marie talk to Newt and Thomas, she is supposed to be doing learning exercises but really, she is reading her book behind the book she is supposed to be reading and watching Newt from afar._

_“What?” Gally asks, looking up from the actual task._

_“Marie,” Cleo says. “Do you think she is pretty?”_

_“I haven’t really thought about it,” Gally says._

_“Really?” Cleo asks. “I thought everyone around here thinks about Marie.”_

_“Do you think she’s pretty?” Gally asks._

_“I think she is flawless,” Cleo says. Gally looks at Marie and then back at Cleo._

_“Why do you care what I think about Marie?”_

_“I just thought I’d ask.”_

_“Marie is pretty,” Gally says after a moment._

_“She is, isn’t she?” Cleo asks. “You didn’t take too long to answer considering you’ve never thought about it.”_

_“I have thought about pretty quite often,” Gally says, “I just haven’t really thought about Marie.”_

_“Who do you think about?” Cleo asks._

_“No one in particular.”_

_“Fine, don’t tell me.”_

_“Cleo?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“Shut up.”_

Gally leads them through the tunnel system. All blue light and shadows and silence for a while. Cleo walks close to Gally and Newt and Thomas staying a way behind. Cleo is stuck on something Gally said earlier, something that doesn’t seem to leave her mind.

“Gally?” she asks after a while, her voice louder than a whisper but not loud enough for the others to hear her.

“Yes Cleo,” he responds checking the direction.

“Did you mean what you said earlier,” Cleo says.

“You need to narrow that down,” Gally says.

“When you said I was prettier than you remembered,” Cleo says. Gally stops walking so he can look at her fully.

“What?” he asks.

“It’s just something you said-,”

“No, I know what I said, I just don’t understand the question,” he says.

“Do you actually think I’m pretty?” Cleo asks. He just stares at her, like she couldn’t have asked him a dumber question and in his opinion she probably couldn’t have.

“Are you kidding?” he asks. “You’re kidding, right?” The look on Cleo’s face makes it very clear she isn’t kidding. “You know you’re beautiful, right? You have to know that.” She just looks away. “You have to know that, surely. The amount of times someone has to have…” he trails off and realizes what he is saying, and who he is talking to. “No one has told you that, have they?”

“Marie,” Cleo says, “Marie told me that. And you, once.”

“And you didn’t believe me,” he says.

“I didn’t believe you meant it,” Cleo says.

“And now?”

“And now I don’t know, that’s why I asked.”

“Hey,” Thomas yells to them. “Where exactly are we going?”

“Just up ahead and around the corner, we get into the train tracks and from there it isn’t far to where we are headed,” Gally explains and leads them through a very small, very narrow opening in the wall. Cleo looks at the gap after Gally climbs through it, with a little suspicion.

“If he can make it, you have nothing to worry about,” Thomas says.

“I know I’m small, I am just, it reminds me of the vents and I hated those,” Cleo says. Gally looking back through to see why they haven’t followed him sees the uncertainty in Cleo’s eyes and he offers her his hand.

“I got you,” he says. Newt watches how quickly she takes his hand, the strange amount of faith she puts in him that Newt can’t understand. Hours before she was screaming at him, and now, he knew exactly what to say. Gally, unlike Newt, knew exactly what to say.

They start to move through and then Gally puts his arm out to keep Cleo back and she stops. “Hold up,” he says, watching the lighting change further through the tunnel. A train starts to rush past.

“Oh, you weren’t kidding about the trains,” Thomas says.

“We have to be quick about this,” Gally tells them. “We won’t have a lot of time, stay on me, okay.”

Cleo and Newt exchange a look, and in all her concern, Cleo starts to smile. “At least it isn’t boring,” Cleo whispers.

“Boring, he came back from the dead less than four hours ago as far as we are concerned, things weren’t ever going to be boring,” Newt says.

“Let’s go,” Gally says, and rushes out onto the tracks. The follow him onto the tracks. Thomas is staring in the direction of where the train went, and Gally starts to replace the metal grate over the hole they climbed out of.

“Tommy loves trains, don’t you?” Newt says looking at Thomas.

“There will be another one, real soon,” Gally says. “Come on.” And he starts to run in the other direction.

“We are running?” Cleo asks. Newt and Thomas start to run after him. “Fuck, I guess we are running.”

They run down the tracks, and the tracks seem to go on forever. “Gally what the hell are we doing?” Thomas yells.

“Mind the tone,” Cleo mumbles.

“Less talking, more running,” Gally yells back. Cleo smiles and Newt sees it, just about keeping her pace. The lighting starts to flicker and the tracks start shaking. Gally looks back to see just how far behind him the others are. He slows and grabs Cleo’s wrist, and just like in The Maze, he pulls her along with him. “Come on! We are almost there.”

Thomas catches up with Gally, mostly out of some kind of annoyance. He wants to take it out on him, he wants some kind of justice and yet Cleo still stands between them, and he doesn’t understand why. What makes Cleo protect him so fiercely? Does she owe it to him for killing him? He doesn’t understand it at all.

“We got to move Newt, come on,” Thomas encourages him. The train starts to come into view as Gally and Cleo reach the vent.

“There,” he tells her.

“What?” she asks. “We are going in there.”

“Newt!” Thomas yells as he stumbles on the tracks. Thomas who is nearly with Cleo and Gally now goes to run back to him, Cleo herself lets go of the bars she was attempting to climb and do the same.

“Go,” he tells Thomas. “I’ve got him.”

“No,” Cleo manages as Gally runs back towards Newt. Thomas shoves Cleo the rest of the way to safety and stands on the bars, watching. Cleo can barely see what is happening from where she sits. She leans to look and as the train approaches, she just sees Gally move onto the tracks with Newt. Everything is blurred as the train passes her by. “Gally!”

The train disappears out the tunnel and Cleo is slow to move her hand from her mouth to stop her yelling and even slower to open her eyes. When she does, she sees Gally helping on his knees next to Newt who is laying on his back, and Thomas looking at her. “Did you say?” Thomas starts.

“You heard nothing,” Cleo tells him, her voice a growl, “not a damn thing Thomas.”

“I heard nothing,” he assures her. Gally, hand over his chest as he catches his breath, glances back to Cleo, seeing if she is okay, and once he sees her, he nods and offers a hand to Newt to help him up.

“We never were good runners were we Newt?” Gally asks.

“Well, I’ve only got one good leg,” Newt says as he gets to his feet.

“Well, I’ve only got one good lung,” Gally says.

“I may kill you both,” Cleo says. “Don’t ever fucking scare me like that.”

“Careful Cleo, your compassion is showing,” Gally says with a smile.

Curie wakes to see Brenda stood next to the chair Curie is tied to. She tries to move but the restrictions hold tight. “Not a chance, I got Cleo to check those before she left,” Brenda says. “You are not going anywhere, her daddy was a sailor, she can tie knots.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Curie says, “I should be with the immunes, protecting them-,”

“Cleo thought of that,” Brenda says, pulling her gun from her bag. “And she told me, to do this,” she points the gun at Frypan, “until they get back, I am a threat to Frypan’s life and the only way you can protect the immune is to stay put and ideally stay quiet.”

Cleo walks behind now, just behind Thomas, who is hovering enough behind Newt and Gally that Cleo knows he wants to say something. “Spit it out greenie,” Cleo says. Thomas slows to stand next to her.

“Why do you trust him? Everything he did, everything he tried to do, you thought he was dead-,”

“He had no way to tell me he wasn’t,” Cleo points out.

“I know you have all your memories now and maybe you know a bunch of things no one else knows, but I have never seen you treat someone with the same ease as you are currently treating Gally,” he says.

“Gally earned it, even before I shot him,” Cleo says, “he earned it.”

Further up Newt is quietly boiling over, and the more he watches Gally and the way he moves now, with a little more difficulty, the cough and the wheeze from the movement and the effort of saving him. “You really want to impress her that bad?” Newt asks. Thomas and Cleo far enough behind that they won’t interrupt, and so wrapped up in their own conversation, not that Newt even particularly cares at this point, he has some things to say.

“You think I saved you to impress her?” Gally asks. “Then you understand nothing at all.”

“Help me understand,” Newt says, “make me understand.”

“She loves you Newt, she always has and you must know that by now,” Gally says, “and I love her, so I saved you for her, but not to impress her, not to try and win her over or whatever you think I was doing. I did it because she loves you, and you can make her happy and I just want her to be happy.”

“She kissed you,” Newt says.

“She doesn’t have feelings for me Newt, it isn’t like that,” Gally sighs.

“She never kissed me like that,” Newt says. “She never kissed me at all, not that Cleo anyway.”

“She wanted to be kissed by you, Newt,” Gally says. “That’s the only reason she ever kissed me.”

“That makes no sense,” Newt tries.

“Look, you want to give me a reason to kick your ass, by all means, give it to me. But I know how she feels about you, she couldn’t hide it, she didn’t really try to, but you never saw it, or never cared-,”

“I cared, I still care-,”

“You don’t care about her Newt, you like how she sees you,” Gally says, “but you don’t care about her, maybe you think you do, but you broke her and you don’t do that to people you care about.”

“She shot you,” Newt says.

“And I deserved it, and I love her anyway,” Gally says. “That’s the different between you and me Newt, she will always want you, but you will never deserve her. And I do not deserve her, but I will never stop trying to.”

“If you think I don’t deserve her, then why save me at all?” Newt asks.

“Because deserve her or not, she loves you, and you can make her happy, and it doesn’t matter how I feel about you,” Gally says. “You want a good life Newt, you want a happy life, don’t we all, but it isn’t that simple, sure, but you are making it harder than it has to be,” Gally says. “Tell the girl you care about, that you love her, it’s that easy.”

“I did,” Newt says. “I told her I had feelings for her. I told her months and months ago, but things aren’t so simple.”

“You told her you had feelings for her?” Gally asks, looking genuinely surprised.

“Yeah, I did, because I found out she had feelings for me, and the whole situation where we found out wasn’t fair, but I thought at least one good thing could come out of it, if I wasn’t a coward and I just told her,” Newt says.

“So why aren’t you two-,”

“Because she rejected me, and I thought it was all because of Marie, and I thought maybe it could change and it would work out,” Newt sighs, “but now I am beginning to think there is another reason.”

“Don’t be a shank Newt,” Gally says.

“You don’t think it’s possible, even for a moment?” Newt asks.

“I have loved her for all my life that mattered,” Gally says, “and she has always loved you.”

“You never thought, even a little bit, that she maybe cared about you?” Newt asks.

“Not even for a moment.”


	26. You Have To Trust Me

When they finally make it out of the tunnels, they find themselves inside the city, the bright lights and clean streets nearly knock Cleo off her feet. “Wow,” she says.

“How the other side live,” Newt mumbles.

“Act like you’ve seen it before” Gally says as they start to walk through. A patrol truck passes and Gally extends his arm to shield Cleo, holding her to the shadows and what she had found endearing not that long before begins to agitate her.

“I don’t need protecting,” Cleo reminds him. He senses the annoyance in her voice.

“There she is,” Gally says, “fierce Cleo.”

“Don’t make me hurt you,” Cleo says sarcastically. She blinks and her hands are covered in blood, Gally’s blood.

“Cleo,” Gally says quickly shaking her from the illusion. “I’m alive, I’m okay.”

“How did you know?” Cleo asks, trying to understand how he could possibly recognize what had happened to her so fast.

“Please don’t make me hurt you,” he says, “it was one of the last things I remember you saying to me.” Cleo feels a tightness in her chest, and wonders if that is how it feels for Gally all the time, finding it hard to breathe. She without realizing reaches out to place a hand on his chest, like she could feel where his pain comes from and fix it. He looks at her. He moves her hand onto his lower ribcage. “The bullet punctured around about here,” he says. “But I’m okay Cleo, you didn’t do what you think you did.”

“I could have,” she says. “I could have killed you.”

“You had to make a choice,” he says. “And you chose to protect Marie, like you always do, and I would expect nothing else. You are Cleo after all.”

The trucks pass and Gally leads them further into The Last City. Thomas keeps getting caught up in the lights and screens, the awe of the world around them, the contrast between this and what they’ve experienced since leaving The Maze. “They really said let’s live in luxury, didn’t they?” Thomas whispers.

“It’s Ava, are we surprised?” Cleo asks. Gally gestures to some stairs on the outside of a building.

“That way,” he says. The wall between them and where they intend to go is tall. Gally offers Newt a leg up and despite his own feelings, he takes it. Thomas pushes past Gally.

“I don’t need your help” Thomas tells him, and struggles but after a moment makes it over. Gally looks at Cleo.

“What about you Cleo?” he asks. “Are you going to sulk on this one too or?” Newt holds his hand out for Cleo to take. Cleo has never been good at accepting help, she remembers that once Marie told her it was her biggest draw back. ‘You are incapable of letting people help you, you know that’ Marie had said, Cleo had laughed it off and told her ‘I let you help me.’ Marie had almost looked sad ‘there are ways you need help that I wont ever be able to help you in Cleo, and I hope when it comes down to it, you will be able to learn to accept that help.’

“Where is she?” Minho asks as Teresa tries to assess him.

“The same place she has been for months now Minho,” Teresa says, “tucked away in the back of her own mind.”

“No,” Minho says. “I haven’t seen her, she always comes by, where is she?”

“Curie?” Teresa asks. Minho wants to correct her, but knows he can’t. Technically he is asking for Curie, even though he isn’t. When he sees Curie, at least he knows Marie is safe, maybe not okay or in control or happy but at least safe. When he doesn’t see Curie, he remembers she is essentially a soldier created by Wicked to obey and serve. And he worries. “She is on a mission right now.”

“What mission?” Minho asks. Teresa sighs.

“We aren’t friends Minho, we never were, and I don’t owe you anything,” Teresa says.

“You don’t owe me anything?” Minho asks. “I am strapped to a machine that plays nightmares over and over so you can play savior daughter for your Ava, and all I ask if you tell me where Marie is-,”

“Curie, where Curie is,” Teresa says. “You don’t realise the good we are achieving-,”

“Then if it’s worth it all Teresa, if you believe that with a clear mind, tell me one thing,” Minho says, “why aren’t you the one strapped up to this machine, giving your fear to help save the world?” She doesn’t respond. “Exactly… So, tell me, where is Curie.”

“Above my authorization.”

Gally leads them to the top of a building where they have a good view of Wicked’s base. Cleo looks at all the glass windows and the sheer height of the building. “Over compensating,” she mumbles.

“Why did you bring us up here Gally?” Thomas asks. He points to the building.

“That is where they will be keeping Minho,” he says. “Everyone that is valuable to Wicked is in that building, all the other immunes, all personnel. Even the devil herself.”

“Ava,” Cleo says, not taking her eyes off the building.

“I don’t know what you can do about Curie,” Gally admits. “But I want to help you get Minho back, and Marie back to herself and your only chance is to get into that building.”

“How do we do that?” Thomas asks.

“There are guards on every level,” Gally starts to show Thomas the security of the building, pointing out the most and least secure points. “There are scanners on every door, they know their people, they are already careful, and since they know that you are around, it is only going to harder to get in undetected. We can’t exactly go in guns blazing, they out number us… nearly a hundred to one.”

“I am just hearing things we can’t do,” Newt says.

“Here is the thing,” Gally says. “It might be possible, somehow to get in, especially with Curie, but she says her orders weren’t to come back until she had found you, so anyone who knows those orders would know something was wrong, risking losing Curie and whatever little grip we have on Marie.”

“We haven’t even seen any traces of Marie in there,” Cleo says. “What if they did something?”

“Cleo shouldn’t go in, she just wants to burn the whole place down,” Thomas says.

“I would love to see you try to stop me Tommy,” Cleo says.

“But there might be another option,” Gally says and hands Thomas some binoculars. He looks through and Gally guides him to the floor he needs to look at.

“That is an option,” Thomas agrees.

“What?” Cleo asks taking the binoculars from Thomas. She sees her, working on some samples in a lab, Teresa. “Fuck no.”

“She might be the best option,” Thomas says.

“Are we forgetting who this is?” Cleo says. Gally turns to her.

“We won’t be trusting her, we won’t be working with her, we will be using her,” Gally says. Cleo still looks convinced. “We just need information, an advantage.”

“A hostage?” Cleo asks.

“If you like,” Gally says.

“Gally, there is so many ifs and maybes in this, you said you could get us in there, we are following your lead on this, we are trusting you, we don’t all have to do that” Thomas says. Cleo hears the ‘all’ like it the only thing he says. But she says nothing.

“Let’s get a few things straight first, okay,” Gally says, leaning on the guardrail. “Otherwise there is no point in going any further.” He pauses for a moment, unable to look at any of them. “Look, I know what I did okay. I may not remember it, but I know what I did, to all of you… I saw Chucks face whenever I closed my eyes for months.”

“Chuck isn’t on your hands Gally, no more than mine,” Cleo says. Gally puts a hand gently on her shoulder, a silent ‘thank you for defending me, but I don’t need it.’

“We don’t have to be friends,” Gally continues, he looks at Newt, “and I am not asking for anybody’s forgiveness. You don’t have to forgive me, or…,” he looks at Cleo now, “anything. But I am asking we put it behind us because we want the same thing. And when it is all said and done, we can go our separate ways, but until then… none of this works unless we trust each other. I am willing to trust you but you have to trust me.”

Newt, always the diplomat, the smart one, the one who could see the bigger picture, able to see what others couldn’t, exactly why Alby chose him for second in command. Newt, always able to see past the emotion and think logically about the situation. He looks at Thomas first, Thomas the most resistant, the most untrusting, and he starts to nod.

“Okay,” Thomas says slowly. Gally looks to Newt and he just nods, and looks away.

“We don’t have to be friends, but we have to trust each other,” Newt says in agreement.

“And what about you, Cleo, Queen of The Glade, do you trust me?”

“Always.”

Newt looked at the two of them, he sees everything he was scared to ask. He doesn’t know what he missed with Cleo and Gally, or how, maybe she was just that good at hiding, maybe there was nothing much to notice. But in the way she speaks to him then, the way his words reassured him more than anything else, he sees something, something he also doesn’t understand how he missed. He sees a glimpse of himself and Marie. A flicker of a memory, of something that they once were, or weren’t, something he felt and didn’t remember feeling until now. But it was becoming impossible to ignore.

_-Flashback-_

_“You look worried?” Newt asks. Marie can’t deny it because she is worried, she is worried and she is sad and Newt can tell but he doesn’t know why and Marie can’t tell him. “Is it about Cleo?”_

_“I can’t talk about Cleo,” Marie says._

_“But you want to, she hasn’t been around in weeks, you must miss her, wherever she-,”_

_“Newt please, I can’t not after the day I’ve had” Marie is practically shaking._

_“Marie,” he pulls her into a hug and she doesn’t have the energy or the strength to tell him he shouldn’t. She just lets him and feels the comfort in it._

_“Can you… stay with me a little while?” she whispers._

_“Always,” he says, “for as long as you need.”_


	27. Forever If You Asked

Gally leads them down a wide concrete road, and Thomas keeps looking around for anyone and everyone who could cause them trouble. His constant looking over his shoulder starts to put Cleo on edge. “Stop it,” Cleo tells him.

“Don’t worry,” Gally says. “No one comes up here anymore. You’re safe.”

“Why not?” Newt asks.

“You’ll see,” Gally says. Cleo looks up at the sky and notices how, with all the light pollution, she can’t see the starts. For the first time she can’t see the stars in the night sky, and she feels strange.

They keep walking until the road just stops, leaving a large fall between where they stand and the building opposite. Newt and Thomas stare up at the building for a moment, stepping closer to the edge. While Gally starts to step back. Cleo is looking around for where they are supposed to go next, but she notices Gally stepping further and further away from the edge. She looks back at the building and the distance between them and it.

“Oh no,” she whispers. Gally smiles at her, the same smile from earlier, that cocky smile, that reckless ‘watch me be an idiot’ smile. “You are absolutely out of your mind.”

“Come on Cleo, do you trust me enough to jump?” he asks.

“You want us to what?” Newt asks. Gally looks at Cleo, who looks over towards the edge one more time and then goes to stand next to Gally.

“Make room boys,” Gally says and starts to run. Cleo runs with him and as they reach the edge, she grabs the sleeve of his jumper. Gally lands smoothly on the edge of the building, but Cleo messes her footing and she loses balance but he catches her. “You’re okay, I’ve got you. You always were quite clumsy, weren’t you?”

_-Flashback-_

_“Gally,” Cleo says, “what are you doing here?”_

_“Making sure you don’t hurt yourself, apparently,” he says._

_“I’m an idiot.”_

_“Maybe a little bit. But a likeable one.”_

_“You need to be more careful, something could happen to you. I worry about that.”_

_“I can look after myself Gally, but thank you.”_

_“You shouldn’t have to.”_

_“Are you going to devote yourself to making sure I don’t fall down all the time?”_ _She is joking, but she watches his eyes with such intent, waiting for an answer._

_“If I have to,” he says. “Cleo I don’t want to see you hurt.”_

_“I am not your responsibility Gally.”_

_“No, but I am your friend,” he says. She sees a sadness in his eyes._

_“Gally, will you walk with me?” Cleo asks, “in case I trip.”_

_“Now?” he asks._

_“Now,” she says, “always.”_

_“Whenever you want,” he says. “Forever if you asked.”_

_“You promise?”_

_“I promise.”_

_“Oh, I will make you regret that Gally.”_

_“I couldn’t regret a thing, if it involved you.”_

Gally looks at Newt and Thomas who are standing at the bridges edge. “Your turn, come on,” he calls to them.

“It’s not as far as it looks,” Cleo tries to make herself sound believable.

“Cleo doesn’t lie,” Thomas says.

“Not often,” Newt corrects him.

“Ready?” Thomas asks.

“I don’t have much of a bloody choice, do I?” Newt asks before they both jump.


	28. Curie, Shut Up

Curie is just staring at the lot of them as Cleo tries to explain what they saw. “It’s like The Flare never even touched the place,” Cleo continues. “But everyone is scanned at every entrance.”  
“You get a cold in that place and they throw you out, they know everyone, you think our tags were an invasion of privacy, what people are willing to put up with to be within those walls,” Gally elaborates.   
“Brenda really just held you at gunpoint the whole time we were gone?” Newt asks Fry. Brenda nods.  
“It was Cleo’s plan, and it worked,” Brenda says. “She has to protect the immunes.”  
“I swear, if I wasn’t already not attracted to women, all the women with guns would probably have put me off by now,” Fry says. The realization of what he said crosses over his face.   
“Really?” Cleo asks coming to a quick rescue, “because if I wasn’t already attracted to women, all the ones with guns would’ve probably made me attracted to them.” The looks in the room turn to her and she winks at Fry. “I mean, look at Brenda, who could say no to a woman with a gun?”  
Thomas does look at Brenda, for a moment longer than is necessary before turning back to the others. Fry leans on the wall next to Cleo. “Thanks,” he whispers.  
“No worries,” Cleo whispers back. “I see why you didn’t put up any fight about Sonya now.”  
“Because she is taken?” Fry says.  
“Sure,” Cleo says.   
“Shut up,” Fry mumbles. “I wasn’t lying when I said blondes.”  
“I mean,” Cleo smiles. “There is always Aris-,”  
“We are done talking,” Fry says getting up. Cleo smirks.   
“Just because I am right.”  
“Can I have your attention?” Gally asks, looking at Cleo who has tuned out the actual planning that is happening.   
“Sure,” she says, moving towards the table. Gally has laid out some vague mapping of the city. “You seemed to know the way around, why do we need this?”   
“Because we won’t all be travelling together, not if we want this to work,” Gally says. Cleo nods.  
“You always wanted to be in charge Gally, looks like you got your wish,” Newt says. Gally decides to say nothing, not because he is above it, but for Cleo, who is already looking at Newt with an unimpressed face.  
“So, what else do we need?” Fry asks.  
“Teresa,” Gally says, “that’s the difficult part, the most risky part.”  
“The same Teresa that betrayed us?” Brenda asks. “You expect us to trust her.”  
“No, no one is trusting her, we aren’t even working with her,” Gally says.  
“We are using her to our advantage,” Cleo says.  
“This is a horrible idea,” Curie says.   
“Just about as sane as the idea of keeping you around,” Cleo says. “You are the same Curie that got Minho taken, the same Curie that tried to leave Newt to die after Janson-,”  
“You weren’t in a state to save him either,” Curie says, “you were hallucinating Gally in a slip of sanity. Do you still see things, even with him being alive?”  
“What do we do about her?” Cleo asks the others.  
“She was your idea,” Newt points out. “And I don’t exactly want to start a fight with you Cleo, but I do think you owe us an explanation if you’ve been hallucinating without telling anyone.”  
“I told Marie,” Cleo says.   
“Marie hasn’t been around for months,” Newt says.  
“I wasn’t hallucinating when I was… when I wasn’t myself,” Cleo says.  
“I am trying to assess mental damage,” Curie says, “do you still see things? Still just Gally or has it progressed?”  
“Curie, shut up,” Cleo says. When she continues to talk Cleo looks like she could snap. “Can someone gag her or something, remove her from the room, I don’t care I just can’t hear her talk with Marie’s voice right now.”  
Newt moves to help with Curie. Curie eyes him. “I don’t understand why Marie stayed quiet for Cleo’s potential romance with you,” Curie says, looking at Newt. “When you wouldn’t do the same for Cleo with Gally. Is it because you thought he was dead?”  
“Someone else deal with her, I just- she looks like Marie and I-,” Newt can’t explain it. It isn’t even what Curie is saying, it’s the memories that are coming back to him slowly and surely, making every moment he looks at her without it being her, hurt even more than the moment before. Thomas sees it, the change in his face when he looks at her, the way he looks… familiar. A worry sets in deep in Thomas’s chest.  
“I must protect Teresa, she is one of the immunes, it is in my programming,” Curie says.   
“Who said you are involved at all?” Cleo asks.  
“We need her,” Gally points out.  
“This plan is very unlikely to succeed,” Curie says.  
“I didn’t ask for your input,” Cleo snaps.  
“You should,” Curie says.   
“Why?”  
“Because Minho is under my care also, and my job is to protect the immunes, if you are going to rescue him, you can only do it with my help, logically, and logically I could help you with a plan that won’t get you killed,” Curie says.  
“I don’t want to listen to you,” Cleo says. “I don’t want you here at all, I just, I want Marie back.”  
“Marie could not help you in this situation,” Curie says. She isn’t being mean, she is just telling what she believes to be fact.   
“Marie helps me in all situations,” Cleo says.  
“Except your romantic endeavors” Curie says.  
“I mean it, get her out my sight, right now,” Cleo says.  
“Cleo you have to ignore her,” Brenda says. She wants to say something to that, like ‘try ignoring it if it was your best friend possessed by a solider made by your malicious mother to try and manipulate and obtain you and all you cared about to slowly harvest and kill them for her own gain’ but she doesn’t. It isn’t Brenda’s fault.   
“How do we get to Teresa?” Cleo asks. “She won’t come willingly, and she is tucked away in that lab.”  
“That, like I said, will probably be the biggest struggle,” Gally says.  
“Try using Thomas,” Curie says.   
“What?” Thomas asks.  
“Even after all this time, she is still interested in you,” Curie says. “She doesn’t hide it very well. She does not like the rest of you very much, but she would have a lapse of judgment for Thomas.”  
“I thought you said you couldn’t help us with Teresa?” Cleo asks.  
“I must protect Teresa,” Curie says. “Wicked isn’t safe, even for Teresa.”  
“So as long as Teresa isn’t in actual danger,” Gally says, “you will help us?”  
“I must protect the immunes,” Curie says.  
“And what about Wicked?” Cleo asks.  
“I cannot harm Wicked personnel,” Curie says.   
“Unless they mean us harm,” Thomas points out, “you shot Janson.”  
“Shot to disarm, it was necessary,” Curie says. “To protect.”  
“So if they shoot first,” Thomas says.  
“I must protect,” Curie says.  
“She cannot come,” Thomas says.   
“That is Marie, we can’t send her in like a solider,” Newt agrees.  
“We need Marie back,” Cleo says. “And how do we do that without someone in Wicked, and Curie?”  
“You want to send her in like this?” Newt asks.  
“Marie would die for any of us anyway, don’t make it sound like it is any different,” Brenda says.  
“I would never want to put Marie in harms way, you know that,” Cleo says.   
“Marie wants to protect you,” Curie says. “It’s the only thing we have in common.”  
“Don’t talk about her,” Cleo warns Curie. “I may not be able to fight you, but I will find some way to hurt you.”  
“I cannot feel pain,” Curie says.  
“But I can disrupt and confuse your programming,” Cleo says.   
“Pointing the gun at yourself won’t work again Cleo, I know it is a trick, and even if it isn’t, the others would not allow you to do it,” Curie says. Cleo pulls out her gun and points it at Gally.  
“What about that, is that a trick?” Cleo asks. Gally doesn’t even flinch, he stands, arms crossed, and watches Curie.   
“You care for him far too much-,”  
“I shot him once, you know that,” Cleo says.   
“He wouldn’t let you,” Curie says.  
“I’d let her” Gally says simply.  
“She would kill you and you don’t fight back?” Curie asks.  
“If it was her, I’d die a happy man” Gally says. Cleo knows that Gally knows she won’t shoot him, and he is just trying to help, but that hurts her. Curie becomes confused again and Cleo relaxes.  
“I need to find Ava, when we get in, when we get Minho, we find Ava, she will know how to fix Marie,” Cleo says.  
“I don’t think that is a good idea,” Thomas says.   
“Why?” Cleo demands.  
“Because you and Ava, that’s a time bomb,” Thomas says. “You want revenge.”  
“I want justice,” Cleo says.  
“Revenge,” Thomas says.  
“Okay, maybe revenge,” Cleo says, “but after everything she has done, don’t you want revenge?”  
“Not with the risks,” Thomas says.  
“I will find Ava, and I will make her bring Marie back,” Cleo says, “or I will die trying.”  
“If you won’t listen to reason,” Curie says coming back to the room. “Maybe emotion will work.” Curie’s expression does not change and neither does her tone of voice, but there’s a shift that Cleo sees immediately behind the eyes.  
“Leo,” Curie says and Cleo knows instantly it isn’t Curie talking anymore.   
“Marie?” Cleo asks like her heart could shatter.   
“She won’t give me long, she is barely giving me this so I really need you to listen to me Cleo please.”   
“Marie, I- I’m so sorry,” Cleo says starting to well up.   
“Cleo, I love you and you have to stop blaming yourself, please, it isn’t your fault,” the others are staring now, not sure if it’s a trick or a game Curie is playing with them, not understanding the secret code passed between Cleo and Marie that made Cleo so sure it was real.   
“Marie?” Thomas asks unsure.  
“Thomas, I need you to know, it’s okay. You can’t fix this and that’s okay, you don’t owe me anything. And Gally, I’m so glad you’re alive, I know it wasn’t your fault, none of it was. And you’ll look after her, I know you will. I know you will,” Curies expression remains blank and her voice flat but her eyes are steaming with tears as she sits perfectly still, staring at them all. “Tell Minho I’m sorry, please tell I’m sorry and I know what they did to hurt him, I know what they put him through and I couldn’t help him, tell him it was never his job to save me, please tell him that won’t you?” Marie can feel herself slipping back, Curie pulling her back into her mind, her time running out before she really gets to tell her family all she wants to say for what might be the last time. “Cleo I know you are angry and I know you are hurt but don’t do it, you get Minho and you run, you run away from this fight. You don’t try to save me, you don’t go for your revenge you run and you run as fast and as far as you can, promise me.” Cleo doesn’t even get to respond. “Newt, Always-,” Curie takes back full control and shivers like Marie was nothing more than a muscle spasm. “Enough of that,” Curie says. “Do you get it now?”   
“The only thing I get,” Cleo says voice shaking, “is that my Marie is safe and sound tucked in that head, and I won’t stop until I get her back.”  
Curie sighs. “That was the direct opposite of the desired effect.”


	29. Keeping His Promise

Cleo’s shaking increases, and her breathing starts to faulter and she hates it because she is doing it here, in front of everyone, in front of Curie. “You look like you’re in pain,” Curie says.  
“I fucking am,” Cleo stumbles.  
“You don’t look injured,” Curie says. Cleo glares at her.  
“Most of the damaged is phycological” Cleo spits. She starts to lose her footing and Gally catches her.   
“She’s having a panic attack,” Brenda says. Cleo can’t hear her over the sound of thumping in her head and how fast her breathing has gotten. “Cleo,” Brenda moves to her side. “Remember what we do when we can’t think straight, when we panic or we get angry or sad, what do we do?” But she can’t hear her. Both Thomas and Newt move closer and Brenda stares them down. “Do not crowd her,” Brenda warns them.  
“You could always try kissing her, that seems to work,” Curie says.  
“No,” Brenda says to Curie, and then repeats eyeing the boys. “She has this, she has this.” Brenda takes both of Cleo’s hands in hers and Cleo finally looks at her. “Hey, hey princess. Princess, remember what we do when the world gets too much, you remember.”  
Gally is so lost, he doesn’t know what to say or do, so he just keeps close to Cleo, ready to catch her if she falls, like always, keeping his promise.   
“Cleo, I need you to listen to me,” Brenda says. “You need to breathe, slowly.”  
“I know,” Cleo manages between breathes.  
“Good, good, you can talk which means you can sing,” Brenda says. Cleo tries to shake her head, her hands shaking in Brenda’s.  
“It always worked, so just do it okay,” Brenda tells her. “Sing my favourite.”  
“My favourite,” Cleo says.  
“Sing princess, come on,” she tells her.  
“You hear a lot of stories,” Cleo tries but her breathing cuts her off. “You hear a lot of- Brenda I-,”  
“Come on Cleo, you have this, you know you do,” Brenda says. “You hear a lot of stories.”  
“You hear a lot of stories,” she tries again, with Brenda’s help. “About sailors and their sport.”  
“About how every sailor has a girl in every port,” Marie whispers. Cleo looks at Curie except she is Marie, not part of Marie, not Marie’s words, she is Marie. “Cleo?”  
“Marie?” she asks. She watches as Marie disappears from her eyes and Curie returns. Curie looks confused, completely unable to understand what just happened. She looks at Cleo, who has held her breath for so long looking at Marie, her panic has gone entirely.   
“What just,” Curie looks at her the others. “Cleo is better?”  
“That was Marie,” Cleo says moving towards Curie.   
“Curie is designed to protect, protecting your mental state must be in there somewhere, even if to stop you snapping,” Brenda says, “she probably just saw it working and tried to use Marie’s memory to help.”  
“That was fucking Marie,” Cleo says, but her eyes are fixed on Curie, “and you don’t know why but it was.”  
“Not possible,” Curie states.   
“You didn’t even realise you were gone, did you?” Cleo asks.  
“I was right here,” Curie says. Cleo rakes a hand through her hair and nods.  
“Fine,” she says and leaves the room.  
“Cleo?” Brenda calls after her.  
“I just- I need a minute.”  
Cleo walks around until she finds an empty room and slams the door shut, slumping to the ground, back to the door, like she had done so many times in her early childhood. She presses her head to the door. She hurts all over. She just wants to save Marie, she just wants to make up for her mistakes and she doesn’t know how.

Newt tries to go after her but Gally puts an arm out to stop him. The look Newt gives him could shatter glass. “She needs-,”  
“She needs ten minutes to herself,” Gally says. “She needs to process.”  
“She needs support,” Newt says.  
“Yes, but not right this moment, she needs space” Gally tells him. Newt looks at him, Gally, the defier of death, the saviour of the day, the only person to know the city, the guy who gets kissed by Cleo to say it means nothing and now the Cleo expert? Newt thinks not.   
“Don’t act like you know her better than I do,” Newt says.  
“I do,” Gally says.   
“You’ve been gone for months,” Newt says.  
“I was her closest friend for years Newt, years of her life you don’t even remember,” Gally says, “but I do. So, when I say I know what she needs right now, I mean it.”  
“You don’t get to talk about her like you are the only one who loves her,” Newt tells Gally.  
“You love her now, that’s a step up from earlier, feeling threatened all of a sudden Newt?” Gally asks.  
“I love her,” Newt says. Gally looks so angry.   
“No, you don’t, you didn’t then and you don’t now,” Gally says.  
“You don’t know how I felt-,”  
“You didn’t love her Newt, maybe she made you feel loved, maybe she made you feel wanted, maybe you loved that, but you didn’t love her, not with what you put her through,” Gally says, “you can’t do that to someone you love.”  
“You want to have this conversation? Again? Do you really want to go there? You want to argue who put her through what? You want to talk about what she went through?” Newt asks, trying to square up to him. “She thought you were dead.”  
“You want to start a fight Newt? Please give me a reason to kick your ass,” Gally says.  
“Boys, please, she isn’t worth it,” Curie says.   
“Shut up Curie!” They both snap.   
“Look Newt, I am trying to help you,” Gally says, “if you go after her right now, she will not thank you for it.”  
“Or maybe you just want to swoop in and save the day like you keep doing, over and over,” Newt is getting angrier now, he is in Gally’s space and Gally is trying his best not to react in the ways he is used to, the way he wants to.   
“I told you, I am not here to try and win her over,” Gally says. “I know where I stand with Cleo, she doesn’t feel like I feel, I just want to see her happy-,”  
“She has feelings for you, it’s obvious, you can’t lie to my face and say you don’t think she does,” Newt yells in his face.   
“You don’t get to say how she feels Newt,” Gally says.  
“Do I, because I actually have intel on this?” Curie asks.  
“No!” Both Newt and Gally yell at her.   
“You know Gally, you turning up like you have, you being here, all like this, it feels too coincidental-,”  
“Newt you sound paranoid,” Gally says, looking almost troubled by it but he tries to hide it. Newt isn’t acting like himself. Not at all. And it has to be more than jealousy. More than that.   
“You don’t get to do this Gally,” Newt snaps.   
“Newt stop,” Cleo says from the doorway.   
“You going to defend him now?” Newt asks, keeping the same tone with her. “You going to protect him, going to tell me I need to back off and leave Gally alone because Gally can do no wrong.”  
“I-,”  
“You don’t even know what we are fighting about and you’re going to take his side?” Newt asks.  
“Newt!” Thomas’s voice snaps Newt out of his rage. Newt is left looking at a very confused Cleo and a room full of people who just watched him lose his temper.  
“I’m sorry,” Newt says. He steps back from Gally. “I’m sorry.” He leaves and Cleo doesn’t stop him, she just holds her hands close to her chest and watches him go.   
“Are you?” Thomas asks Cleo.  
“No, you go talk to him, I just, I can’t right now,” Cleo says waving him to go.  
“I didn’t mean to start a fight,” Gally tells Cleo. Cleo nods.  
“I believe you. I believe you.”


	30. Don't Tell Cleo

Thomas follows Newt up to the roof, where he finds him sitting over the edge, staring across to the rest of the broken buildings, the way the ivy has almost reached the top, trying to claim back the world as its own, is almost a reminder of the time passed, more than just the world, but in the short time they’ve known each other and how much can change.

Newt looks at him as he approaches. “I’m sorry about that, back there,” Newt says. “I should be better than that.”

“Newt, that wasn’t like you,” Thomas says. Newt sighs and starts to roll up his sleeve.

“I guess I can’t hide this anymore,” he says as he shows the dark veins that have started crawling up his arm. Thomas crouches down to sit with him, not really knowing what to say.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Thomas asks.

“Didn’t think it would make any difference,” Newt starts, but as he says it, he knows that isn’t the reason. “All I know is Wicked must have put me in that Maze for a reason, and it seems it might have been just so they could tell the difference between the immunes and people like me.”

“Newt,” Thomas says. “How did this even happen?”

“That’s the thing,” Newt says. “I don’t even really know. But The Flare is airborne, maybe I was just done for as soon as we left The Maze. Curie should have just-,”

“Don’t,” Thomas cuts him off. “She knows you aren’t immune-,”

“Exactly,” Newt says.

“You know we can still fix this Newt,” Thomas says. “We can, you’ve seen Brenda, if we get into Wicked.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Newt says. “This is about Minho, and Marie and…”

“And?” Thomas asks. Newt looks back to the buildings, to the edge.

“They need us, so not matter what the odds are, if there is even the slightest chance, we can save Minho, we can help Marie, we have to take it. No matter the cost,” Newt says.

“Do you really think Marie would-,”

“Tommy,” Newt says.

“Okay,” Thomas says, “okay I hear you.”

“Did I ever tell you about how… when I broke my leg?” Newt asks. Thomas doesn’t recall, but he does know that it was deeply linked with why Cleo was all tough edges and angry with him when Thomas arrived in The Maze. He knew that is was something Cleo didn’t want to talk about, and as Marie had said, seeing other Gladers with similar injuries had pushed Cleo out of the med tent, because she couldn’t bare to remember.

“I don’t think so,” Thomas says.

“Way back in The Maze, not too long after I had come up in the box, really, I was like all the others, I didn’t know where I was or know who I was, and even though all my memories were gone I could feel that something was missing. Cleo was there, and she had been there much longer than me, Cleo had been there for the first death by The Maze, Cleo had been there the for a lot of things, and she remembered the most of anyone, about The Maze and before The Maze and she still had no idea who she was or who she was meant to be. She was lost. Cleo was so sad, she tried to hide it, but she was honest with me, we were honest with each other, and in that honesty, she told me something. She told me that it didn’t go away, that she felt empty, like I did. I felt empty. I saw it in Cleo and Cleo was the only good thing in The Maze, she was the one thing that kept me grounded. In seeing her so honestly hurting, like I was. I knew I didn’t stand a chance. Not if Cleo didn’t. I couldn’t hack it. I just… I couldn’t take it. So, one morning, I got up early, and I snuck out into The Maze. I found the tallest wall I could, and I climbed up,” he looks to the sky, like he is remembering the distance, “and I jumped off it.” Thomas just looks at him, letting him speak. “Of course I got tangled up in the ivy, snapped my leg in three different places, like a proper shank,” he tries to laugh a little, take the edge off, but Thomas just looks at him, a sad smile on his lips, “I landed hard on the floor. I thought that was it, and then Minho found me. Somehow. And he picked me up and he took me back to The Glade. He never told anyone the truth about what happened, not a single person. And no one questioned Minho. Cleo knew, and she never looked at me the same. Even now, I know what I did and what pain I caused her, I think that is why Gally gets to me so much.”

“Because she thought he was dead?” Thomas asks. Newt shakes his head.

“Because Gally didn’t try to die,” Newt says. “And that makes it easier to forgive him.” Thomas tries to speak but Newt just continues. “Minho saved me, he gave me a second chance. Marie, when she turned up, all softness and smiles, and optimism, more than The Glade had ever imagined, it felt like we had reason, we had purpose, we had something. We weren’t so empty anymore. Not Cleo. Not me. Marie was missing, and Cleo and I knew that the moment we met her in The Glade, because suddenly things made sense when they hadn’t before. Like we had been waiting for her. Minho and Marie, they both saved my life, Thomas, and now they need us.”

“You remember loving her now, don’t you?” Thomas asks, sitting on the ledge next to him.

“I don’t know what I remember,” Newt says.

“Come on, we are being honest now, aren’t we?” Thomas asks. “So, let’s be honest. Let’s talk about Marie.”

Cleo looks at the plans one more time. Brenda has actually with the help of Fry and Jorge taken Curie to another room, leaving just Gally and her to look at the plans. Cleo hasn’t said a word since they left and Gally knows her silence won’t break until he speaks to her. But he doesn’t know what to say.

“When you shot the gun up, did you know what you were doing?” Gally asks. Cleo looks up from the plans on the table.

“What?” Cleo asks.

“When you shot me,” Gally says, “you pointed the gun up, if you had shot straight you would have killed me.”

“I never wanted to hurt you,” Cleo says.

“Choosing to take a life-,”

“No” Cleo cuts him off before he can even try. “I tried to shoot Ava Paige in the damn heart, and I barely even hesitated. It wasn’t about taking a life Gally. I didn’t want to hurt, you.”

“Because you care,” he says, remembering. “About what happens to me.”

“I still do,” Cleo says.

“Why?” He asks.

“At the time, I wasn’t sure,” Cleo admits. “And then after I thought you died… all I could do was think about why… why it hurt so much… why I couldn’t stop thinking about you… why ever bad dream I had, every nightmare, every waking terror, every moment of panic and every delusion, it was all you…”

“I’m sorry for what you went through,” Gally says.

“You need to not apologize to me Gally,” Cleo says. “I already have a bunch of unhealthy relationships in my life, I don’t need you thinking you owe me anything, when I literally put a bullet in you.”

“I don’t blame you,” he says.

“But you should, you should not just be okay with that,” Cleo says.

“I’m not okay with it,” Gally says, “I never wanted things to happen like they did Cleo. But I would rather you put a bullet in me, than I had actually done something… Nobody is perfect, and if anyone had to take me down, I am glad it was you-,”

“You shouldn’t be,” Cleo sighs.

“I am, because it is the only reason I am still here,” Gally says, “if it had been anyone else, I would be dead Cleo. You have to know what, you saved me.”

“I nearly killed you,” Cleo says.

“But you didn’t,” Gally says. “I am not encouraging you to shoot me again, I didn’t enjoy it,” Cleo laughs a little, “but I understand, and I forgive you.”

“How can you do that so easily?” Cleo asks.

“It isn’t easy, nothing I do is easy, the last time I did the easy thing was before The Maze,” Gally says, “but I spent, what over half a year able to think about what I would say or do differently, what I would say or do if I saw you again. You spent months think I was dead, I spent months hoping you weren’t. I cared more about you being okay than I did about the hole in my lung.”

“You really need to assess your self-worth,” Cleo says.

“And you don’t?” Gally asks. “You are so willing to sacrifice being loved, for someone who ever asked that of you.”

“We talking about Newt and Marie now? Really?” Cleo asks.

“I thought when you turned up, all those looks Newt was giving, was maybe because he was still a coward,” Gally says, “turns out he told you how he felt, six months ago.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cleo says.

“Cleo for as long as I have known you, Newt is all you have ever wanted,” Gally says.

“Things change,” Cleo says.

“Not that,” he says.

“Maybe he isn’t the only factor I have to consider anymore,” Cleo says.

“Marie would want-,”

“Maybe it isn’t about Marie either,” Cleo says. Gally looks at her eyes, and how they won’t look at him. “Maybe there are just… so many things, I need to think about.”

“Like what?” he moves closer, like he is reaching for her.

“Like getting Marie back before I even can think about Newt or you or…” she trails off.

“Me?” he asks. A look crosses over Cleo’s face.

“She was singing,” Cleo mumbles.

“Can we backtrack a little?” Gally says. “What about me?”

“Can I speak to Lawrence?” Cleo asks.

“I mean, probably,” Gally says, “but again, what about me do you need to think about?”

“I can’t talk about that right now,” Cleo says. “I need to speak to Lawrence. Like right now.”

“I don’t feel like I can talk about Marie,” Newt says. Thomas looks up and takes in a deep breath.

“I don’t think we can avoid it either,” Thomas says. “If Minho and I can have this conversation, so can we.”

“Minho loves her without doubt, without issue, Minho is probably the only person who actually deserves her,” Newt says.

“Because I am in love with a memory of a girl, and that isn’t fair?” Thomas asks.

“You realise that by watching me be a prat for the last six months?” Newt asks.

“Something like that,” Thomas says. “I love Marie, that is no secret, and I will always love Marie, but she isn’t the Marie I knew, not the Marie who looked at me one day and realized that could be perfectly happy with me, because it would be very complicated to be happy with you.”

“I don’t think that’s fair, Marie was never selfish,” Newt says, “if she cared about you, it wasn’t because you were there.”

“No, she cared about me, I don’t doubt that, but I don’t think she would ever love me the way I loved her, and she definitely couldn’t now,” Thomas says. “But I still owe her, I still love her, even if she is different now, and things will never be what they were. I still love her. And I will still do anything and everything to get her back.”

“I remember moments, I remember feelings,” Newt says. “I loved her before The Maze.”

“Without competition,” Thomas says. “She was all you could see.”

“I don’t remember the Marie you were in love with then, or the Marie I was in love with then, I guess,” Newt says.

“But you know Marie now,” Thomas says, “your best friend and your closest ally, the girl who was willing to stand on the side-lines so you and the girl she loves most in this world can be happy.”

“I do know that Marie,” Newt says.

“And you love that Marie,” Thomas says. Newt leans back slightly, his shoulders dragging him down with the weight of gravity.

“I, I don’t know how I feel,” Newt says.

“I think you know exactly how you feel, you just don’t want to admit it,” Thomas says.

“You think I’m protecting your feelings?” Newt asks. Thomas shakes his head.

“No, I think you realise once you admit it to yourself, you know Cleo was right,” Thomas says.

“That Cleo was right?” Newt asks.

“You can love two people at once Newt,” Thomas says. “You just love them differently.”

“Like you with Brenda?” Newt asks. Thomas wants to deny it, but in the sake of honesty he just sighs deeper.

“I don’t think I love Brenda,” Thomas says.

“But you could,” Newt says.

“Yeah,” Thomas admits. “I think I could.”

“But you won’t let yourself, because what you think you owe to Marie?”

“Like you won’t admit you have feelings for Marie because what you think you owe to Cleo for all you put her through?”

“I don’t think we get to call the shots here Tommy.”

“Maybe not.”

Gally leads Cleo back to where Lawrence is and he waits at the door. “I can come with you,” Gally offers. Cleo shakes her head.

“No,” she says. “I think I can do this.”

“I’ll be right here,” Gally says.

“You don’t have to protect me from everything Gally,” Cleo says.

“No, but I want to,” Gally says. Cleo sighs.

“Gally, you can’t protect me from everything,” Cleo tells him.

“I can try,” he says. She wants to kiss him then, she wants to try again to tell him everything she has wanted to tell him for six months. She wants to make him understand. But she knows that he knows she loves Newt, and as long as he thinks that, she knows there is no point in even trying. So she just smiles and walks in.

“Cleopatra,” Lawrence says without turning around. “I wondered if you’d come to see me.”

“I did too,” Cleo says.

"Do you know what I am, Cleopatra? I am a businessman, which means that I don't take unnecessary risks. So prove to me, that you aren’t an unnecessary risk.”

“Why did you let us in to begin with when you don’t trust us?” Cleo asks.

“Gally has proven himself to be trustworthy, and when he told me he had seen some people he knew, people he believed could help, I had a feeling he was thinking with his heart and not his head but I would allow it,” he picks up a rose, “you see I’ve heard a lot about you Cleopatra, from the information boards and the news, and then a lot from Gally, and you are painted in two very different ways.”

“My mother never cared for honesty,” Cleo says. “She cared for results.”

“You need something?” he asks.

“I do,” Cleo admits.

“What do you have to offer?” Lawrence asks.

“I don’t know because I still don’t understand what you want from me.”

“Interesting.”

“Lawrence, why did you ask about my sister?” Cleo asks.

“Curiosity I suppose,” he says.

“You aren’t the only person who is curious,” Cleo says.

“You are filled with the same rage as him, you know that?” he asks.

“Gally?” Cleo asks. Lawrence shakes his head.

“Your father,” he says.

“What do you know about my father?” Cleo asks.

“Not much,” Lawrence admits. “Just reputation.”

“My father was quiet and kind, he wasn’t angry,” Cleo says.

“What about when The Flare took him?” Lawrence asks, “The Flare turns even the most mild mannered man into a monster, after all.”

“Are you trying antagonize me, and if you are, for what purpose?” Cleo asks.

“I am curious,” he says.

“You mentioned that,” Cleo says.

“You and your mother, you have a lot of differences,” Lawrence says, “but I think you share her drive, I just hope you’re driven by the right things.”

“I want justice for everything Ava and Wicked put me and my friends and so many others through,” Cleo says.

“You want revenge,” Lawrence says.

“Maybe,” Cleo says, “so what if I do?”

“What can I do for you Cleopatra?”

“Firstly, you can stop calling me Cleopatra, it is Cleo,” Cleo says, “and secondly, you can stop talking in halves, don’t ask questions and then refuse to answer mine-,”

“What can I do for you Cleo,” Lawrence says. Cleo sighs, aware that she isn’t going to get anywhere with talking to Lawrence.

“What are the chances of finding something around here that can record sound, loop it, for a prolonged amount of time?” Cleo asks. Lawrence looks away from his flowers and to Cleo for the first time.

“We have used all sorts of things for diversion and distraction,” Lawrence admits. “But I sense you aren’t looking for that?”

“I need something small,” Cleo says, “pocketable.”

“I have something for you, I will send someone to get it,” Lawrence says. “It won’t take long.”

“Thank you,” Cleo says and turns to leave.

“Ask me,” Lawrence says.

“Ask you what?”

“I know that look, ask me how I am still alive, how I am still what I am,” Lawrence says.

“It’s the bliss,” Cleo says. Lawrence chuckles.

“You are a smart one, Gally was at least right about two things about you.”

“What was the other?” Cleo asks, without turning back to look at him, hand still on the door handle.

“That you would never meet someone so willing to jump.”

“Curie can’t know,” Thomas says. “We know she will see you as a threat, and I don’t want to think what she would do.”

“She would kill me, I think we know that,” Newt says.

“So we don’t let her know, we hide it from her,” Thomas says.

“For as long as we can,” Newt says.

“Well the less of us who know, the harder that becomes, you acted out of character in their Newt, we all know that,” Thomas says.

“Luckily it was about Cleo,” Newt says, “people will think it was the jealousy.”

“What about Cleo?” Thomas asks.

“Don’t tell Cleo” Newt says so fast.

“That isn’t fair,” Thomas says, “you can’t keep that from her.”

“I can and I will, and I need you to do the same,” Newt says.

“Newt…”

“Tommy, I don’t ask much of you,” Newt says, “but I am asking for this. Promise me you won’t tell Cleo.”

“Newt.”

“Promise me, you won’t tell Cleo.”

“I promise I won’t tell Cleo.”

“Thank you,” Newt sighs. “Cleo just. She can’t know, she has so much going on right now. I can’t, I can’t put her through this too.”

“So, you think hiding it from her is really better? Surely historically that hasn’t proven itself to be true.”

“I didn’t tell Cleo how I felt because I was a coward, I am not telling her this because I am trying not to be a coward.”

“I don’t think she would see it that way.”

“Well since we aren’t telling Cleo it doesn’t matter, does it?”

“Aren’t telling Cleo what?” Cleo asks, coming up onto the roof. They both look surprised and she is quick to apologize. “Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping or anything, I just heard my name, you don’t have to tell me anything.”

“You need something?” Newt asks.

“I, I have a longshot,” Cleo says, she is holding a small rectangular box in her hand and flipping it from side to side. “And it may not work, like even remotely, but I think we should all be there, for if it does work, and for that I need you both.”

“A longshot?” Thomas asks.

“I know you guys didn’t see what I saw with Curie,” Cleo says. “But I think I am right about this, so can you please just come with me?”

“Is that a tape recorder?” Jorge asks looking at what Cleo is holding.

“Yes” Cleo says. “I was thinking about something Aris said, about how I loved Marie.”

“Who is Aris?” Gally asks.

“He is a friend, he helped us escape from Janson, he helped us get to The Right Arm, he’s an immune, he… he was in a Maze like us,” Cleo says.

“Good guy,” Brenda says.

“Aris said something about how my love for Marie broke down even Wicked’s tried and true, I got my memoires back even though I shouldn’t have, I remembered her like a feeling in The Maze even if I didn’t actually have any memories of her to hold that too. I knew she mattered,” Cleo continues.

“We know Cleo, you and Marie have a profound bound,” Thomas says.

“Then I remembered something else, Marie and I were never meant to have more memories than you,” Cleo says. “But for some reason we did, in our Maze we kind of assumed it was a gender thing? But I don’t think it was, because when Marie went into The Maze, they used Siren Call Protocol, which worked on Marie and on me, because of our connection to the girl who was crying,” Cleo says.

“Your sister,” Thomas says.

“Exactly,” Cleo says. “It wasn’t memory they couldn’t erase, it was emotion. When we woke up in the box, each and every one of us in The Maze, we didn’t know who we were or why we were there, but we felt like we missed things. Chuck felt his parents absence, Alby felt he was letting someone down but he didn’t know who, I felt I was missing something. I was, I was missing Marie, even though I didn’t know it at the time.”

“What has this got to do with that?” Jorge asks, pointing at the tape recorder again.

“What did Marie and I remember? Stories, but it was less stories, we remembered myth and legend and maybe that is just because Wicked never thought to try and remove it specifically. But we remembered songs,” Cleo says. “Songs stayed with us no matter what Wicked did.”

“All the songs you knew, you were taught by your dad, right?” Brenda asks.

“Yeah,” Cleo says, “and I taught them to Marie, and to Bessie. They are so deeply linked in my psyche with the love in my life I was missing, that I couldn’t forget them even if I didn’t know what they meant. I had no relationship with my mother, but my dad, my dad was my hero, I loved my little sister so much, and Marie, Marie meant the world to me. So, the songs stayed even when the memories went away. And the songs” Cleo plugs some wires into the tape recorder, “the songs reached me, in my head, in The Maze, in my most feared moments, when nothing else could. Because they ran deeper than anything else. Those songs are the baseline of my memory. They were the first thing I had as a child, and they connect me to what I love in a way that even Wicked can’t take away.”

“They connect you to Marie,” Newt says.

“They connect Marie to me as well, when I was looking for her in The Maze, I sung to her, and she sung back, when I got lost in what wasn’t real, she would sing to me, and I would come back,” Cleo is looking at everyone, waiting for the penny to drop.

“And when you sung,” Brenda says.

“Curie sung back,” Thomas finishes.

“But it wasn’t Curie,” Cleo says. The others look doubtful and she understands it. “I said it was a longshot, but if anything can reach Marie, it’s the songs.”

“So… what, you recorded yourself?” Thomas asks.

“Not proud, but yeah,” Cleo says, plugging the earphones in. “And I think, maybe, as long as she can hear it, we can talk to Marie.”

“This is a longshot,” Newt agrees with her.

“But isn’t it worth a try?” Cleo asks.

“I am willing to try anything,” Thomas says.

“Then we try this, and I might be wrong and it might just have been Curie’s programming, like when she kissed you,” Cleo is looking at Newt now, “but if it is not, and we can get Marie back, even for a minute, isn’t it worth it?”

Curie doesn’t look at Cleo as she approaches. “You done arguing?” Curie asks.

“No, probably not,” Cleo says leaning down next to her.

“I can help you know,” Curie says.

“I think maybe you are right Curie,” Cleo says, “I think maybe you can help.”

Curie looks at her now, mostly because nothing she has on Cleo would suggest she would ever give that response. Cleo was the ranked least likely to agree with her, in her statistics. “Am I missing something?” Curie asks. Cleo nods.

“A lot actually,” Cleo says. “But I think I can fix it.”

“Something needs fixing?” Curie asks. “Is someone hurt?”

“Psychologically,” Cleo says.

“I am not programmed for that,” Curie says.

“I know,” Cleo says. “But I don’t need you to be.”

“I am supposed to protect the immunes,” Curie states. Cleo would almost feel bad for Curie, for all her honesty and programming she is just that… programming. If she wasn’t in Marie’s body, she would probably have more pity for her, but she looks at her with Marie’s eyes unseeing, she uses Marie’s voice without feeling, and that she cannot forgive or let go of. Wicked thought they did something using Marie as their secret weapon, and they did do something. But not what they planned. They thought it would weaken them, it would make them easier to capture, to control, to cooperated. Instead, it threw Cleo and the others further off the deep end. Cleo could never forgive them for this. Not what they did to her Marie. She would never forgive them for that.

She places one earphone in Curie’s ear and Curie looks even more puzzled. “Stay still,” Cleo tells her.

“I,” Curie is too confused by the situation to know how to react. Cleo is talking calmly and is not seeming to be of threat, and Curie in her current state of restriction couldn’t really fight back even if she thought she needed to. Cleo is giving her no reason to believe she needs to. “I am following base orders.”

“I know,” Cleo says.

“Why do you care about her so much?” Curie asks. She is trying to understand. She wants to understand. Human emotion, although she is very aware of it and what it can do, does not make sense to her. Cleo would die for Marie, and yet Marie asking her not to, only made her more eager, that makes no sense to Curie. Curie wants it to make sense because not understanding is so frustrating.

“Because nothing in my life makes sense without her,” Cleo says and presses play on the tape. She watches Curie closely, and it happens, slowly. The emptiness in her eyes starts to fade back and a light returns to them, her expression softens from a stern blank face to a sadness, a softness, a half-smile.

“Leo?” Marie whispers. “What is happening?”

“Hey, Ma,” Cleo says, almost crying. “We missed you.”


	31. I'm Sorry

“I’m sorry,” Marie says again. “Mary, I-,”

“No,” Cleo says holding her hand. Marie has apologised to everyone, collectively and individually what must be enough times for a lifetime, in the few two hours. And what everyone has managed to figure out, is Marie knows what Curie did, all of it, but she can’t do a thing against her, and any moment the songs aren’t playing, if the tape recorder buffers or the earphone falls out, Curie slips back in. So, they are watching so carefully, trying everything they can to make sure they keep Marie in control. “If you remember what happened you must remember what I told you then. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I” Marie looks so sad, hurt pain, Cleo can feel it. There is nothing she wouldn’t do to take that pain away.

“Were you just watching?” Cleo asks. “The whole time?”

“No,” Marie says. “Not the whole time, sometimes I was in a nightmare, like Minho is now.”

“Like a dream?” Cleo asks.

“A dream where every time I look at someone, I care about they’re…” Marie stops. 

“Tell me about it” Cleo says. Marie wants to refuse, but Marie knows what Cleo will say, and Cleo might be the only person who can understand. Cleo kept seeing Gally die over and over, and it scared her, even though he couldn’t die again if he was already dead. Marie kept seeing Cleo, who she knows is immune, turn into a crank, over and over, even though she knew Cleo couldn’t. Facts don’t make fear less horrifying. Cleo would understand that.

“I know you’re immune,” Marie says. Cleo’s heart hurts to hear Marie say that, but she tries to keep a straight face, because Marie or not right now, she cannot tell her, not when Curie is still in there. “But I just…I kept seeing you, seeing you turn. I know it can’t happen, but you saw Gally die, and you knew it couldn’t happen again-,”

“I know what it feels like,” Cleo says. “Hey, I’m okay.”

“I couldn’t help you,” Marie says. “No matter what I do Cleo, I can’t help you, I just- I can’t do what you do. I can’t fight her, I can’t help Minho, I can’t, I can’t do anything-,”

“That isn’t true, Marie, not at all,” Cleo says. “You make me stronger, I need you.”

“I don’t think you do,” Marie says.

“Marie, you are the only thing that I cannot be without,” Cleo says. “The only thing.”

Teresa sits across the table from Minho, he looks so tired, so done, and he is sits in silence, not looking at her, he can’t stand to look at her. The guards leave them to talk. “Minho,” Teresa says gently, like a doctor to a patient, like she is pretending to care. “Can you hear me? There are people here, people who are being helped, we are seeing such progress. I wish I could make you understand. There’s a little girl, been infected for a few weeks now, and you’re saving her. Everything we are doing here, it is helping others. So many others, you could save so many people. You don’t even know it. Everything we are doing here, everything Wicked is doing, it is working. Wicked is good.” Minho doesn’t move. “Do you understand how important you are? Why this is all so important… I just, I wanted you to know.” Teresa gets up and walks slightly closer to him. “I’m not the villain you all think I am.”

“I can’t,” Minho whispers. Teresa looks at him closer and closer, trying to hear.

“Minho?” she asks.

“I can’t wait,” Minho says, his voice starting to rise. “For Cleo to destroy you.” Panic crosses over Teresa, but she doesn’t have the time to react before Minho grabs her and throws her down onto the table. “For what you’ve done, you will pay, you betrayed us, all.” Her hairpin slips onto the table and Minho slips it into his cuffs before the guards pull him off and sedate him.

Teresa leans on the wall outside the room, catching her breath. She wasn’t scared before. But with Curie being gone so long, she has an awful feeling.

With the group being much large in the tunnel this time, Gally is even more vigilant than last time. These tunnels are dangerous for more reason that just Wicked or the trains. If people can find their way in, so can other things.

Newt walks with Gally up front and Gally just keeps glancing at him, and it is starting to get under Newt’s skin. “What do you need Gally?” Newt asks.

“Are you going to tell her?” Gally asks.

“Tell her what?” Newt asks.

“You know what,” Gally says. “Your temper, your outburst, you forget Newt, I have been where you are right now.”

“You can’t tell her,” Newt says.

“I wasn’t going to,” Gally says. “But you should.”

“You really expect me to take Cleo advise from you?”

“You should.”

“Why because you know so much about her?”

“Because I know so much about this very specific situation,” Gally says, “you may feel like you’re in control right now Newt, but trust me, you won’t feel that way forever and you want to talk to her before it starts to cloud over. If you trust me on nothing else, trust me on that.”

Marie is walking at the back of the group with Cleo, hand in hand as Cleo almost drags Marie into her space so much Marie could become a part of her, probably Cleo’s intention to begin with. She needs to protect her, now more than ever.

“What is up with Newt?” Marie asks. She noticed it when she got her chance to talk to him, he seemed off, not himself, and she knows she has been gone for so long, she can’t expect everyone to be exactly as she remembers them to be. Especially with everything that happened with Cleo. But something feels wrong, deep in Marie heart she knows it, but she doesn’t know why.

“I wish I knew,” Cleo says. “He just confuses me.”

“Do you give him a chance to explain?” Marie asks. “You aren’t so good at that.”

“He is mad about Gally, like he as the right to be,” Cleo says.

“You’re mad at him?” Marie asks.

“No,” Cleo says. “I just, I want to stop playing this game.”

“He tried to reach out to you, you turned him away,” Marie says.

“What about you, what about what you need?” Cleo asks. Marie squeezes Cleo’s hand.

“I need you to be happy,” Marie says.

“I can’t be happy with him if I know it hurts you,” Cleo says.

“And you think I could?”

“Guys,” Gally’s voice starts to travel from the front of the group, as he walks back slowly guiding each person in the right direction, working back to Marie and Cleo, looking worried, Newt follows him, not understanding what Gally knows that is such a problem.

Gally doesn’t get to them in time though, not before the cranks start to show themselves. Marie and Cleo being just far enough away from the group that they can’t go forward like the others can. “Gally?” Cleo asks, reaching for her gun.

“You have to go around,” Gally tells her. “Listen to me, back a few minutes there was a left turn, go up and through, I didn’t want to take us that way because of how many of us there are but-,”

“It’s the way we went the first time,” Cleo says.

“Meet me at the vent,” Gally tells her before starting to shoot of rounds. “Run.” Gally hands Newt a gun and Cleo goes to drag Marie around, knowing they don’t stand a chance trying to go forward, but Marie’s eyes are fixed on Newt. Newt whose sleeve has risen just an inch on one side, but when he raises his gun, it is enough to show just a flicker, just a glimpse, of those black veins.

“Oh no,” Marie whispers.

“Marie, run,” Cleo says dragging her along with her. Her nightmares are filling her memory, every time she would see those veins, the eyes, the sickness, in Cleo, in Minho at least it wasn’t possible. But in Newt, it was inevitable.

“Cleo,” Marie says again, now she is mostly back in reality. Cleo is trying to remember the way they are supposed to be going. But she seemed to save paid more attention to Gally than to the actual way he led them, and the tunnels are confusing. “Cleo, I think I know what’s wrong.”

“Yeah, I think I am a little lost,” Cleo admits.

“No Cleo, something else,” Marie says. She thinks he was keeping it from her intentionally, not because she would let it slip to Curie, not that was a concern, Marie had to stay in control, because what she knows, Curie knows and Curie will only see Newt as a threat now. Marie thinks Newt, in his stubbornness has not told Cleo because he thinks he is protecting her. She knows it isn’t her place, but she also can’t keep it from her, not after everything.

“Is it important?” Cleo asks, her voice sounds so light. The lightest it has sounded in a long time, and they are running for their lives through tunnels and train tracks and vent systems. But she has Marie, she finally has Marie and sure it isn’t without its risk, but she is here right now and she is herself and that is the best Cleo has felt about anything in a while.

“Cleo I thin- Cleo!” Marie grabs her and pulls her back just as a crank comes out of the darkness. Cleo slams into the wall unsteady, but she recovers quickly. The crank looks at them both, with it’s hollow eyes and it lunges for Cleo again. She kicks it back and tries to pull her gun out.

“Marie, go up there,” Cleo tells her, “I’ll be right there.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Marie says.

“I’m not letting you die, especially not for me,” Cleo says. “Marie just move.” It comes at her again and Cleo isn’t expecting it so fast. It knocks her on her back and Cleo feels a weird familiarity as she holds it back by the throat as it tries to bite at her.

Marie is looking around for a way to help her, anything sharp, anything at all. But she doesn’t see any options. So moves over and tries to pull it off her. “Marie!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“You aren’t immune,” Cleo says.

“And you aren’t immune to death if this thing bites your throat out!” Marie yells. Between the two of them the crank loses its grip on Cleo and the three of them all get scattered to the ground again. The crank, deep into the infection and fast in a way neither of the girls are, is quicker to move than both Cleo and Marie. Cleo grabs her gun from the ground where it fell in the struggle, as the crank moves for Marie, Marie who in an act of self defense raises her arm in front of her face. Marie screams and Cleo pulls the trigger.

The gunshot rings through the tunnel. Cleo couldn’t see what happening but the crank falls dead, a direct headshot. Marie moves out from under it, panting and shaking. Cleo is to her side before the crank fully hits the ground. Cleo smiles. “You scared me Marie,” Cleo says. “Don’t go doing stuff like that, what happened to you aren’t brave, huh?”

“I couldn’t let it hurt you,” Marie says. “I thought I could help.”

“Ma, what do you mean, you thought, you were crazy and I am so mad at you,” Cleo says. “But you did save me there. Just don’t ever do that again.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Marie says. Cleo’s smile slips from her face at Marie’s tone. She understands that was horrifying and Marie is in shock but they are alive, she doesn’t understand where the optimism and the joy is gone, it is Marie’s thing.

“Hey, we are okay,” Cleo says. Marie won’t look at her, so Cleo starts to let her eyes wander from Marie’s to everything else, and she sees it. The war Marie is covering her arm with her hand, like it would hide the truth. “Marie,” Cleo says slowly. “Give me your arm.”

“I’m sorry,” Marie says slowly. “I… I am sorry Cleo. I thought, I thought I could help. I wanted to finally help, for once-,”

“Give me your arm,” Cleo says. Marie lets go and the bitemark is clearer than day. “Oh Marie.”

“I’m sorry,” she says again.

“Stop apologizing to me, right now, you don’t owe me an apology, not now, not ever,” Cleo says, she is rushing through her brain trying to figure something out. Something fast, something to fix it. “We are breaking into Wicked, I mean there’s that, at least Minho would be grateful that his suffering could save you.”

“Cleo,” Marie says, “you need to stop, you aren’t thinking, the lab is even more dangerous to try and get to, we can’t risk changing the plans.”

“Screw what we can’t risk,” Cleo says. “I’ll make you some serum my goddamn self in front of Ava if I have to-,” she stops as she remembers, what she keeps forgetting time and time again. Something that she has, something she can use, something that was meant for a moment like this. “Never mind.”

“Never mind?” Marie asks.

“Mary thought of everything,” Cleo pulls her necklace out of her shirt. “I have something.”

“No,” Marie says, pushing Cleo back as she pulls her necklace off. The necklace, as Cleo looks at it, she realizes is more than just a vial. It looks different from what Teresa had in the box because it is, but it is also a delivery devise. The large metal protective layer around the vial also contains a needle for injection.

“Mary you really do think of everything,” Cleo whispers. She looks at Marie, who is shaking as she looks at the bite. “Ma, I can help you.”

“You can’t use that on me,” she says.

“I can and I damn will,” Cleo says, tugging up Ma’s sleeve. “It isn’t a permanent solution, but we are going to Wicked and I will get more. And it worked for Brenda.”

“Newt is also infected,” she says. Cleo freezes. The world seems to stop. The words don’t even register in her mind at first. She doesn’t understand what she heard. What Marie just said. Just like when she read that Newt wasn’t immune. Her brain simply could not understand.

“What?” she asks, her voice that of a lost child.

“He got scratched or something, I saw his arm, I saw the signs,” she says.

“When?” Cleo asks.

“Just now,” Marie says.

“But if he is showing sighs then,” Cleo stammers. “His fight with Gally, the temper. That means-,”

“He is much further along,” Marie says.

“But how?” Cleo is running the days through her mind trying to understand. Her hand trembles so much she is scared she could drop the vial.

“Newt isn’t immune,” Marie says. “Curie doesn’t care about Newt, if he doesn’t get something to keep it under control and Curie gets back in control.”

“That bitch-,”

“Now you see,” Marie says, pushing Cleo’s hand away. “You can’t use that on me. You see now right?”

Cleo looks at Marie. Her best friend. The person she loves most in this world. The girl she would fight to the ends of the earth to protect. The girl she only just got back. The girl who just told her that the boy they both love, more than they knew they could, is also dying. That she has to protect him from what Marie can become with Curie, about what Curie could do with Marie’s hands.

“I see everything now,” Cleo says.

“I’m glad,” Marie says. “Because I love you Cleo and I need you to know-,” Cleo takes the vial of serum and she stabs it right into Marie’s arm without hesitation. Marie just looks at her, eyes so wide.

“I’m sorry,” Cleo says, “but I can’t lose you, not again.”


	32. Maybe You Should

It starts coming back to Marie, not in the floods that it came back to Cleo after the crash. Not in the flashes that it came back to Thomas after he got stung. Not in the slow slow trickle that it is coming back to Newt as the infection grows worse. But it comes back to her like a story, playing out in her head. Each page turning and reminding her of something she had long forgotten. Everything about Curie, everything that happened. But the lab is still an unknown, she can’t remember exactly anything clearly, it is all fog and bad dreams, she can’t pull a clear memory to the surface, like something is still blocking her, even now. But she remembers Thomas, his face, so young, so hopeful. She remembers Newt and the way he smiled at her. She sees a young Minho in her mind and all Minho comes rushing through, the last six months. Every moment she had shut down, turned off, it hits her, the lab might be escaping her mind but nothing Curie did can.

Cleo just sits, holding Marie, waiting for her to wake up. She isn’t sure how long she had been out. She knows the solution is temporary and she knows Marie is going to hate her. But she had to do it, she didn’t have a choice. Not like Marie thought she did. Cleo wants to save Newt, of course she wants that, she wouldn’t ever want to see him harmed. But it isn’t a choice. It is always Marie. Always.

Cleo takes Brenda’s scarf from her pocket and wraps up Marie’s arm, it isn’t exactly ideal, but it would stop anything getting in for now. Protect the wound in any way she can, luckily it isn’t deep, barely even broke the skin, but anything is enough for The Flare to set in. Marie doesn’t know the danger Cleo was in, as far as Marie knows Cleo can’t get The Flare, Cleo knows that’s not true, but Marie doesn’t, and she threw herself into the fight anyway. How could Marie honestly expect her to not protect her? She was Marie, Cleo only has one job in this life, to protect Marie. No matter the cost.

She starts to stir and Cleo waits, sitting patiently. She doesn’t want to face what is to come but she understands it is inevitable. Marie does not like confrontation, she never has. Marie isn’t one to shout or yell or pick a fight. But Cleo knows what she has done. She knows how Marie will feel. So, she checks the wires one more time, the tape recorder took a hit in the fight, but it still seems to be playing, and as long as it does at least she has Marie, not Curie. At least she has only one kind of worry. That Marie might just hate her for this one.

Marie looks like she could fall apart the moment her eyes open. All those memories, all the pain, Cleo can see it in her eyes. The nasty little side effect of the infection, that it gives back what Wicked stole, whether it was wanted or not. “I asked you to choose Newt,” is all Marie says to her. “And you couldn’t do that for me.”

“Marie, I had to-,”

“No, you didn’t, you could have chosen Newt, you could have helped Newt, he is suffering and you choose me, again and I didn’t want you to, I don’t deserve it,” Marie says.

“That’s not true,” Cleo says.

“Cleo, I killed Mary, I have done so much bad, I have hurt so many people, I have hurt you, and I have hurt Newt and I have hurt everyone I have ever cared about, and they just keep getting hurt trying to protect me and I am not worth it-,”

“Ma, you don’t-,”

“No, no you let me talk Cleo,” Marie says and it knocks Cleo off guard. She sees the damage she has done and she can’t undo it, but she also doesn’t regret it. So, Cleo is left with this horrible feeling, that she believes she made the right choice even if she has to suffer for it. “I let Minho be in pain, I let so much bad stuff happen. And you keep screwing everyone over, including yourself to protect me. I don’t deserve it. You could have given Newt more time, we don’t know how much he has and you could have helped him, but you chose me again. And it’s selfish Cleo, because you have this idea that you are supposed to protect me and in turn, I fix you, I make you whole, and you can’t put yourself in a place that means your only purpose in life is to protect me. That isn’t fair. And you can’t expect me to be the only thing that matters, because that isn’t fair either. It means that when you have to make choices based on logic you just don’t. You know how it works Cleo, and you know if you didn’t choose me there was just as much a chance for the both of us and now- now what? You expect me to be thankful you saved my life? But you didn’t Cleo, you gave me more time, and I don’t need more time, I have done so much, I don’t deserve it.”

“Ma, please, I couldn’t-,”

“You love me and you couldn’t lose me, yeah I know Cleo. But surely you have to admit that if you cared enough you would have listened to me. If you cared what I wanted, what I needed, instead of you choosing to protect me whatever the cost. I never asked for that, maybe that’s what Wicked wanted me to be, to be the thing that you all protect. But I never asked for that. I don’t think I ever asked you for anything Cleo, not a damn thing. But I asked you to pick him, I asked you to save him. For both of us, for me. I asked one thing, and you couldn’t do it, not one thing. And I love you Cleo, I love you more than I could ever explain but I am not okay with what you have done, not even a little bit. I am so angry at you Cleopatra, so angry.”

Marie does not call her Cleopatra. Not even before. Cleopatra is reserved for those who don’t know her or don’t want to, and the way she says it. Cleo knows what it means. Cleo knows that in this moment, to Marie, she is unrecognizable.

“Cleo, Marie,” comes Gally’s voice from further up. “I thought something happened.”

“You’re alone?” Cleo asks.

“I told the others I’d come get you,” Gally says.

“And they let you?” Cleo asks, but her voice is so empty, so flat, it doesn’t even sound like Cleo.

“I didn’t give them much of a choice,” Gally says. “What happened?”

“You need to help Marie,” Cleo says walking in the direction Gally came from. “She will be really tired from the serum.”

“Cleo, what happened?” Gally asks.

“We got attacked,” Cleo says. “We survived, we should get going.”

“Not until you tell me why you look like that,” Gally says.

“Gally, please, just help Marie. Because I can’t.”

Cleo feels completely empty as they walk to meet the others. Marie is so overwhelmed with the sadness and the tiredness, that they walk the whole way in silence. Gally practically carrying Marie as they go. Gally wants nothing more than to understand, but he knows not to ask, not to push.

Cleo’s necklace, now an empty vial, hangs around her neck, feeling heavier than when it was full.

She feels nothing, not a damn thing. Until she sets her eyes on Newt. He looks relieved to see her, even more relieved when he sees Marie and Gally. Less relieved when he sees how Marie looks so sad, so tired. “What happened?” Newt asks. Cleo walks right up to him and grabs his arm and before he can stop her she rolls up his sleeve. The others are too fixated on Marie to notice but Cleo sees it, sees it all.

“Newt, why didn’t you tell me,” Cleo asks, voice low.

“I couldn’t, not you,” he says.

“So who did you tell?” she asks.

“Thomas,” Newt says. Cleo looks like she could fight Thomas right now, so angry she is shaking. “I made him promise he wouldn’t tell you.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t tell you.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Not you, how could I tell you that?”

“How couldn’t you, I could have helped,” Cleo’s voice raises a little, and it goes mostly unnoticed, but Gally looks over, and he sees her, looking like she could break something or breakdown in equal measure.

“I couldn’t bring myself to look at you and tell you, I just couldn’t,” Newt says.

“Why not Newt?” Cleo demands, so filled with rage she can barely contain herself.

“How do I look at you, and tell you that my own stupidity is only going to cause you pain, how do I look at the girl I love, with the pain on her face knowing once again I caused it? Tell me how I am supposed to look at you, and tell you that I am beyond saving, how do I tell the girl I love that?” he asks.

“You don’t,” Cleo says. “Because you aren’t beyond saving, and you are going to tell Marie that, you are going to look at her and you are going to promise her you are going to be okay, and you will be, because you promised her, and it doesn’t matter that the odds aren’t in our favor and it doesn’t matter what you think. Because you promised her and you can break my heart if you want Newt, you can try and not tell me things, you can try and leave me alone, you can blame me for not being who you wanted me to be for months, you can blame me for caring about Gally. But you can’t break a promise to Marie. So, you are going to promise her and you are going to keep it. Because she needs you.”

“Cleo-,”

“You weren’t going to tell me, were you Newt?” Cleo asks. “Did you just expect to give up and that I wouldn’t notice?”

“I just, I needed more time,” Newt says.

_“You could have given Newt more time.”_

“Tell her you will be okay, and be okay,” Cleo says.

“Cleo” he tries to grab her arm but she won’t have it. Not now.

“Newt, we have so many problems, so many things have been said and done and we can’t change any of it, it doesn’t make me love you any less but it makes it so much more complicated, and I thought I wanted complicated, I thought I wanted difficult and extraordinary. I thought I wanted you no matter that the cost, but I was wrong,” Cleo says. “I love you Newt, but I am not sure we will all make it out of this.”

“I’m not just giving up on you because you think you know best Cleo,” Newt says.

“Maybe you should.”

Gally leads them the rest of the way and Cleo doesn’t say a word. Marie talks to Newt, who doesn’t know what happened or understand the tension, but he knows Marie isn’t okay, and he just wants to make her feel better, so he just keeps talking. And it hurts her, to hear him, to see him trying so hard, to see him pretending nothing is wrong. But Marie doesn’t want to make him feel worse. The ability of the body to fight The Flare is linked with a person’s persistence, a persons will power, Marie remembers this from Curie’s information. She knows that the best way to keep Newt safer for longer, is to keep him focused on a purpose and right now, his purpose is to cheer up Marie, so she lets him try.

“Thomas, you have to do this next bit alone,” Gally says. “This is hard bit.”

“I’m ready,” Thomas says.

“You got this,” Brenda tells him, he smiles a little. Marie sees it, the little smile. A lot can change in six months, she supposes.

“Get her attention and you know where to go,” Gally tells him.

“I know Gally, I have it all under control.”

Teresa falls perfect into the trap, just like Curie guessed she would. She glimpses Thomas in the crowd and she forgets all logic, she follows him through the mix of people, across streets and into an empty building.

“Thomas?” she asks. He looks at her, taking the hood down to show his face better, no longer having to hide from the cameras. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I just had to see you,” Thomas says. Teresa doesn’t question it. Teresa has always wanted to be more than she was to people, something that Cleo understands, but she never understood Teresa. The way she fought for Ava’s approval, against Cleo, like Cleo was ever competition. And the way she fought for Thomas’s attention, like she ever stood a chance next to Marie. “Do you regret it?”

“What?” Teresa asks.

“Do you regret what you did, what you’ve done to us, to Minho, to Marie, do you regret it?”

“Sometimes,” Teresa says. “But I believe I made the right choice, and I would do it again.”

“I was hoping you would say that,” Cleo says, gun pointed at Teresa’s head. “It means we get to do this the gun way.” 


	33. We Have All Done Things

_-Flashback-_

_Gally can feel Cleo’s breath as she is sleeping on his chest. She had a hard day so she found a way to keep the door open, so when the nightmares snuck in, Gally could too. He laid next to her on her bed while she talked and talked and he listened and when it was his turn to speak, he distracted her from all the mean things in her world, and she fell asleep on his chest, to the beat of his heart. And now he can’t move for fear of waking her. So, he lays surrounded by blankets, warm sheets and pillows she isn’t even using. And he wonders, how if anyone asked, he could explain this to them. And he can’t think of a single thing to say except ‘I love her and she was scared and alone.’ So, he doesn’t sleep, he lays awake, next to her, all night, to make sure she is okay. And when morning comes, he drapes the blankets over her shoulders and leaves without a sound. Gally loves her that way, quietly and without request, without expectation._

Newt pulls the bag off Teresa’s head and moves back to stand with the rest of the group, watching Teresa realise her situation. “Gally?” she asks, looking at him. Cleo feels the rage in her bubbling.

“Here is how this is going to go,” Gally says leaning on the table. “We are going to ask you some questions and you’re going to tell us exactly what we need to know.” Cleo completely lost from everything she decides to focus entirely on two things, Teresa who she hates and Gally, who is currently making Teresa’s life very difficult. “We’ll start of simple,” he grabs a chair and drags it towards her. “Where’s Minho?”

“You guys don’t seriously think-,” Gally cuts her off with the force in which he places the chair down in front of her. He sits down, the wrong way on the chair, arms on the back rest, and looks at her. Teresa looks to Thomas, like he could help her

“Don’t look at them, why you looking at him, look at me,” he says. Cleo can’t help but smile a little, and tilts her head down to try and hide it. “He not going to help you.” Teresa sees her behind him, Marie. “She isn’t either,” Gally says.

“Curie,” Teresa manages.

“Not Curie,” Marie responds. Teresa looks even more worried.

“Now we know you have Minho in the building,” Gally continues. “Where?”

“He is with the others in holding,” Teresa admits. “Sub-Level three.”

“How many others?” Newt asks.

“Twenty-eight,” Teresa says. Brenda looks ready to flip a table or something and starts to pace.

“I can make that work,” Brenda says after a moment.

“No, you guys don’t understand, the whole level is restricted, you can’t get in without a thumb print ID,” Teresa looks at Marie again. “You have her…”

“But we need you,” Thomas says.

“Do we, I don’t know if we necessarily need her,” Gally says getting up and reaching for a scalpel. “Not all of her anyway.”

“Gally back off,” Thomas says.

“No, Gally continue,” Cleo says.

“Should I be worried about the way you’re smiling right now?” Gally asks her.

“Both of you, cut it out,” Thomas says.

“I’d rather cut her up,” Cleo says. “You know what she has done.”

“We have all done things,” Marie says shutting Cleo into quiet mode again.

“She has probably done a lot worse to Minho,” Gally says.

“That isn’t the plan, we can sell Curie being back despite Janson’s orders but only with Teresa,” Thomas says.

“That still requires not only Teresa to cooperate, but for anyone and everyone to believe Marie is Curie,” Gally says.

“It won’t make a difference,” Teresa says. “Janson gave orders-,”

“Ava has gone over Janson’s head before, he would believe she has done it again,” Marie says.

“Okay, do whatever you want to me,” Teresa says. “You can’t get through the front door, the sensors will pick you up the second you try.”

“We know, we are tagged,” Thomas says.

“Not all of us,” Brenda points out. “Cleo isn’t.”

“Cleo is the proof we have that we can remove these things with no real damage,” Thomas says. “Marie can remove some, but Teresa is also going to help.” Cleo fights every instinct to say Teresa isn’t going near anyone with a scalpel and just lets Thomas talk.

“Brenda is looking good,” Teresa says.

“You don’t get to talk about Brenda,” Thomas says as Teresa takes the scalpel to his neck.

“Healthy, I mean,” Teresa says, “how have you been getting her serum?”

“What do you mean Teresa?” Thomas sighs.

“I just, I didn’t think Brenda would still be alive, no one at Wicked does,” Teresa says. “When was her last treatment?”

“Mary,” Thomas says, “before brainwashed Marie to shoot her.”

“That wasn’t my intention,” Teresa says trying to defend herself before really processing what Thomas has said. “Wait, Mary? But that was months ago.” Teresa pulls the tag out. “Thomas that isn’t possible.”

“You really think I care what you have to say Teresa?” Thomas asks getting up.

“She should have turned by now,” Teresa continues. Thomas walks away. “You don’t believe me?”

“You expect me to? Any of us too? You know what you did Teresa, you betrayed us, again. You betrayed Marie, again. You betrayed Cleo, again. You betrayed me, again. Not a single one us trusts you Teresa, why would we? You never gave us a reason to.”

“You never gave me a chance,” Teresa says.

“You’d have gone what you did regardless of how we acted, you know that, so don’t even try. You made your choice.”

“Everything okay over here?” Brenda asks.

Gally holds a scalpel out to Cleo who is watching Teresa with Thomas with a very close eye while Marie is assisting Newt. “Give me a hand?” he asks.

“I am not medically trained,” Cleo says.

“Wouldn’t be the first time you’ve told me that,” Gally says. Cleo reaches up and touches his nose, where it nearly broke.

“You didn’t scar,” Cleo says.

“No, so I trust you,” he puts the scalpel in her hand. “I trust you much more than I trust Marie who relies on music to stay Marie, and her. So, come on.”

“Okay,” Cleo says and moves so he can sit down on the chair while she cuts the tag out of his neck. He flinches as the blade breaks the skin and Cleo apologizes so fast. “I’m sorry.”

“You shot me, I’ve felt worse,” Gally says.

“I don’t think I have,” Cleo says and pulls the tag out. Cleo places a hand on Gally’s shoulder to signify she is done, but he just places a hand over hers, keeping her there.

“You want to talk about it?” he asks.

“Not even a little bit,” Cleo says.

“Do you need to talk about it?”

“I can’t fix it, so it doesn’t matter,” Cleo says.

“If it upsets you, it matters,” Gally says. Cleo looks over at Marie and Newt and then away. “Oh,” Gally says, “he told you?”

“You knew?” Cleo asks.

“I suspected, when he started to fight me, even when I was my most… me, in The Glade, Newt always broke up fights, he never got involved,” Gally says, “he wasn’t himself.”

“He didn’t tell me,” Cleo says. “She did.”

“Why?” Gally asks. Cleo looks around at the others to see if anyone is paying them attention, but they aren’t. So, she leans closer and shows him her necklace. “What is that?”

“It was, bliss, serum, a temporary fix to the none immunes being… infected,” Cleo says. “Mary gave it to me before I got sent into The Maze, incase the worst happened, she thought I might figure it out.”

“You’ve had that all this time?” Gally asks.

“I didn’t know what it was until The Right Arm, I suspected but I didn’t know,” Cleo says.

“Why is it empty?” Gally asks, twisting the vial between finger and thumb. “Did you?”

“No,” Cleo says. “Everyone thinks I am immune, remember.”

“Marie,” he says. Cleo nods. “But Newt-,”

“So, she told me, thinking I’d use it on him instead,” Cleo says.

“But you didn’t, because you always pick Marie,” Gally says.

“And now she is angry with me,” Cleo says.

“She knows you saved her-,”

“She didn’t want me to, she wanted me to pick Newt.”

“She has to know you could never do that,” Gally says.

“She knows and she hates me for it.”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

“I think right now, she does, just a little bit.”

“She couldn’t ever hate you Cleo, she loves you too much, what you two have, it can’t fall apart, it isn’t capable,” Gally says, holding her hand tighter as he feels her sadness taking over.

“What did I ever do to deserve you Gally?” Cleo asks. He chuckles. “No,” Cleo says not letting him play it off. “I mean it. You have to know that… you mean a lot to me.”

He looks at her, leaning back into the chair as she stands behind him, her hand in his, resting on his shoulder. He doesn’t believe that she feels like he does, but he wishes he could, he wishes he could believe she loved him from the start and that he wasn’t just some distraction from the boy who broke her heart.

Teresa picks up some of the bloody rags from the table before Jorge puts her back in a seat. Brenda walks over to Thomas who is now impatiently leaning on a pillar. “You don’t look so great,” Brenda says.

“You wont even lie to me?” Thomas asks.

“What good would that do?” Brenda asks, smiling at him. “Can you promise me something Thomas?”

“Probably not,” Thomas admits. He is scared to look at her, because he knows, and he wants to pretend he doesn’t know.

“Promise me that you won’t go too far, and you’ll come back,” Brenda says. “You will do what it takes to stay alive?”

“You worried about me?” Thomas asks. Brenda goes to reach for his hand but she resists and looks away, eyes seeing Marie across the room.

“I can’t with good conscious let you go,” Brenda says, “thinking you won’t come out of this. Promise me you will know when to leave, and you will.”

“I can’t promise you that,” Thomas admits, hand brushing hers.

“You don’t give up, even when you know you should Thomas. Even when you know you should.”

“I’m doing that,” Brenda says taking the scalpel from Teresa’s hand as she moves to help Marie.

“I thought you wanted my help?” Teresa asks.

“I don’t want you anywhere near Marie,” Brenda says and watches her leave.

“You really want to do this?” Marie asks.

“Cleo doesn’t seem up to it right now,” Brenda says, “and I don’t trust Teresa, and Tommy has shaky hands.”

“He does,” Marie agrees. Brenda tries to be quick and gentle as she helps Marie, but the silence is a warning sign, like Brenda keeps holding her breath. She is so glad Marie is back, she is glad she is safe, but there is something that neither of them are saying. “He deserves someone like you,” Marie says after some time. “Someone who chooses him.”

“What he deserves and what he wants don’t always align,” Brenda says, honestly.

“I guess that’s true,” Marie says, glancing at Newt, “for all of us.”

“He loves you,” Brenda says, “I have known that since the day I met him.”

“It doesn’t matter if we know they love someone else, we don’t control our feelings,” Marie says.

“Or we give them up for others,” Brenda says.

“I won’t ever be what Tommy remembers, I’ve changed too much, I’ve done too much, but with you, there is no expectation you have to live up to,” Marie says.

“Are we forgetting I am not you,” Brenda says. Marie smiles sadly.

“You don’t have to be,” Marie whispers.

“There,” Brenda says, “all done.”

“You two okay?” Thomas asks. Brenda and Marie share a look.

“I am going to smash this,” Brenda says holding the tag up and exiting the conversation.

“She is good for you,” Marie says watching Brenda leave.

“Marie,” Thomas says.

“Don’t apologize, don’t even think about it,” Marie says. “You deserve to be happy, and you don’t owe me anything.”

“But I… I love you,” Thomas says. Marie gets up and kisses him on the cheek.

“I know.”

“Can you do this Marie?” Thomas checks. Fry, Brenda and Jorge have left to go to their places and now the five of them and Teresa remain, ready to walk into Wicked.

“I just have to act like I am escorting her,” Marie says. “I just pretend to be Curie.”

“Can you do that?” Thomas asks.

“I remember being Curie, Thomas,” Marie says. “So, it doesn’t matter if I can do it, I have to. For Minho.”


	34. Minho Comes First

“If you can just act like you belong here until we get to the first level and then if anyone asks, you’re being escorted as Wicked property,” Gally reminds her.

“Yeah, I know the plan,” Cleo says.

“You don’t look confident,” Gally whispers.

“Maybe that is because you talk so much,” Teresa says. Cleo digs her nails into Teresa’s arm as they walk.

“You know what Teresa, you might really want to watch your words,” Cleo whispers.

They make it to the second floor before anyone even looks at them. Then they just have to wait, waiting for Lawrence is the hard part for Cleo, she already has to rely on Teresa, and she still doesn’t trust Lawrence, not at all.

“He’ll do his part,” Gally says, looking at how on edge Cleo seems.

“Sure,” Cleo says. Marie is just watching Newt, it is all she can do to stop herself thinking back, focusing on Newt means she has to find solutions, ways to help, instead of thinking all she has done, all she can remember.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Newt tells her.

“It feels like I have,” Marie says, “I can’t explain it but my memories, some of them…”

“Have come back?” Newt asks. Marie nods. Newt is watching her carefully now. “Which… which ones?”

“Why?” Marie asks.

“You aren’t the only one who is having memories,” Newt says. It courses her mind in that moment, that with The Flare flooding his system, memories of the lab might be coming back, and all that comes with those memories.

“I am not her Newt,” Marie says, “whoever you are remembering, I am not her.”

“I would never ask you to be,” Newt says. Marie looks at him, and he worries like with Cleo, he said the wrong thing, but there’s a lightness in her eyes, a relief, a comfort, and for once, he thinks he found the right thing to say.

“Cameras are down,” Gally says, “time to go.”

They lead Teresa through the floor, the boys with the guns and the guard outfits, Marie trying her best to seem disinterested and unwavering, like Curie would be, and Cleo trying to not seem like she wants to burn the place down. “I still say I could’ve got a suit,” Cleo says.

“You’re smaller than any actually adult should be,” Thomas says, “be glad we even let you come.”

“She sells it,” Teresa says, “why would I be coming to the immune holding, at this time of day if I didn’t have to return one?”

“Aren’t we worried that people will know it’s Cleo?” Newt asks.

“If they do, it explains why Curie would be back, despite Janson’s orders,” Thomas says. “Besides it is a little late to start questioning the plan now.”

“It’s a little late for a lot of things,” Cleo says. “I just don’t like these,” Cleo gestures to the broken Wicked brand cuffs she is wearing.

“You haven’t even closed them,” Teresa says.

“Do you want to wear them? Tell me they are comfortable?” Cleo asks.

“No,” Teresa admits.

“Are you scared of me Teresa? Because you should be,” Cleo says.

“Shush,” Marie warns them. “We are being discrete, remember.”

Teresa places her hand on the scanning pad and the door opens. The man behind the desk looks up. “Returning an immune,” Teresa says. He looks perplexed.

“I am sorry but I have to check,” the man reaches around as if to reach for Cleo. Gally moves very quickly, gun to the man’s neck.

“Don’t touch her,” Gally says. Cleo smiles as Gally knocks the man unconscious with the back of his gun. The three of them take off their masks and both Cleo and Marie can’t help but notice how sick Newt looks, hair messy from the helmet, but it’s the lack of colour in his face, the exhaustion in his eyes. He looks vulnerable.

Thomas leans over Teresa as she puts in the passcodes to make the doors release. The door opens and Marie and Newt are immediately counting through the immunes. “Teresa, I thought you said twenty-eight,” Newt says.

“There are,” Teresa says.

“Where’s Minho?” Marie asks over the top of Newt, looking around. Teresa looks confused.

“He should be here,” Teresa defends, and starts to type into the system.

“Then why are there twenty-nine and no Minho?” Newt asks.

“There’s twenty-eight unless you mean,” Teresa stops.

“Unless you mean?” Cleo asks. Cleo looks to the immunes when she sees her, sitting on a chair talking to one of the younger girls. A young blonde with shoulder length curls and big bright eyes. Such a familiar face, all grown up.

“Is that?” Marie asks.

“Wouldn’t Curie have-,” Gally starts to ask.

“No,” Marie says, “I didn’t know, I mean it.”

“Bessie?” Cleo moves through the immunes. “Bessie?”

The girl looks up to her with a little resistance. “Yes?” she asks. Cleo bends down to look at her properly. Bessie stares back, she is still so young. Bessie sees the necklace around Cleo’s neck, the empty vial and her expression changes as she feels the chain of her own necklace. “You aren’t…” Cleo starts to whisper, “you shouldn’t be here, not with them.” She is mixed up, she hasn’t seen her sister in four years, she didn’t know if she was alive or dead and here she sits exactly where they found themselves. Because for despite how Bessie may look just like Ava, she seems to be all Cleo at heart.

“If mother finds out I’ll be in trouble,” Bessie says. “But not as much trouble as you.” Bessie throws her arms around her. “Where’d you go Leo? Where’d you go?”

“I,” Cleo just lets her hug her. She doesn’t even notice as Bessie pushes something into her pocket. Bessie just embraces her like it hasn’t been four years, like there isn’t a million reasons she should act differently, and Cleo just lets her. “I’m sorry, I should’ve been here.”

“Cleo,” Marie says, the first thing she has said to her in hours.

“I know,” Cleo nods, pulling Bessie off her. Gally has moved to using a small blowtorch to open the other door.

“They moved him to the medical wing,” Teresa says finally locating Minho on the system.

“Why?” Marie asks. “He can’t, he shouldn’t-,”

“I don’t know,” Teresa says, “but it is on the other side of the building.”

Bessie is tugging a Cleo’s sleeve, trying to understand why her sister is here and rushing. “Leo,” she insists.

“Hey,” Cleo says, turning back to her. “I, I will explain everything okay Bess, I promise, but right now, I need you to trust me.”

“So, we go get Minho,” Thomas says.

“I’m coming with you,” Marie says, “you won’t get anywhere without me.”

“And me,” Newt says.

“No, not you, you go with the kids and you get to Brenda, you wait to the serum,” Cleo says.

“Minho comes first,” Newt says, he looks so angry at her and she knows it isn’t Newt and she knows why it is, but it still hurts.

“Gally get the serum, we get Minho” Thomas says.

“I don’t take orders from you,” Gally says.

“Fine,” Cleo says, “but I’m going with Newt.”

“No, you aren’t,” Newt and Gally say at once.

“None of you own me, when I said I was going to get Minho I meant it, Gally, take Bessie, and the others, get the serum and meet us” Cleo says.

“Cleo,” Gally wants to argue with her.

“Take my sister to safety, and meet me, I don’t trust anyone else to do that,” Cleo says. Gally nods, as he starts to gather the immunes and Bessie stares up at him. “Do you remember Gally?” Cleo asks.

“Yes,” Bessie says, “the boy with the flowers.”

“The what?” Thomas asks.

“I have found the route,” Teresa says. “But if you are insisting on this insanity, we need to go.”

Cleo takes a long look at Teresa, Newt and Marie are already practically out the door, but Thomas has his hand on Teresa’s shoulder, like he was waiting for Cleo’s approval. Cleo wants nothing more than to burn Teresa for all she has done, and yet she still has the audacity to try to tell her what she should be doing. But she bites her tongue. “We need to go,” Cleo says, “now.”

“Meet you later,” Thomas tells Gally.

“I’ll have it,” Gally says. Cleo gets all the way to the door before she turns back.

“Gally,” Cleo yells. Gally is already guiding the kids through but he looks back to her. “I kind of… I sort of…”

“You, kind of, sort of what?” he asks. She looks at him, and he is Gally. He is both the Gally that stayed up with her all night to make sure she was okay, and the Gally that drove her insane in The Glade, the Gally that saved her life with his blood and the Gally that saved her life by not dying on her. And she doesn’t know what happens when she leaves here, she doesn’t know who gets to leave here, she is putting a lot of faith in so many things she can’t rely on. She isn’t sure on almost anything right now. But she does know one thing that is true, one thing that she will regret if she doesn’t say.

“Love you,” Cleo says. He looks sad, and inhales deeply.

“No, you don’t get to do that,” he says, looking at the floor instead of her. “You don’t get to tell me you love me because you think I am going to die or you are going to die or we are both going to die. You don’t get to tell me you think you love me because you don’t think you are going to see me again.”

“That’s not what I’m doing, I am telling you I love you because I thought you did die, and I tried to tell illusion after illusion of you, every time I saw you in the distance, in the wind, in the sand, in other people, I tried to tell you and I couldn’t get the words out, so I am telling you now, and I know it means nothing, and I know you know I love him. But I need you to know, I love you too” Cleo says.

“You love me or you think you love me?” Gally asks.

“I love you, you idiot,” Cleo says. “Now be safe, and come back to me okay?”

“Don’t I always?”


	35. None Of Us Are Innocent

Teresa leads them down a set of corridors and though ID doors and the layout just becomes more and more confusing. “How do you navigate this place?” Thomas asks.  
“Don’t you remember?” Cleo asks.  
“We haven’t been here before?” Thomas asks.  
“All Wicked buildings have the same system,” Teresa says. “The one we grew up in, and this one.”  
“System?” Newt asks.  
“You won’t remember but Cleo taught you all ways to get around the building, the fastest ways, the ways to figures out how to get from a to c without being caught at b,” Teresa says, she is trying to appeal to Cleo, to Cleo’s sentimentality that Ava always stunned her for. It isn’t working.  
“We weren’t ever friends Teresa,” Cleo reminds her.  
“We could have been,” Teresa says getting them through another door.  
“No,” Cleo says, “no we couldn’t have. You saw me as a rival from day one.”  
“I didn’t see you as a rival,” Teresa says. “I saw you as someone who wasn’t using what she had, wasn’t appreciating it.”  
“Wasn’t appreciating…” Cleo drags in a deep breath through gritted teeth. “You can have Ava, I don’t care about that. She was never a mother to me, but what you did to us, you still think that is justified?”  
“You are our only chance-,”  
“What about the ones you put in that weren’t immune,” Cleo asks. “What about them? You just wanted to see if they’d live or die?”  
“Controls are necessary in every experiment,” Teresa says.  
“And that Teresa is why we never could have been friends, because you still see this like you’ve always seen it, we were subjects in an experiment, we don’t matter, we aren’t people to you,” Cleo says.  
“You are people,” Teresa says, she looks at Marie, who is trying to act like she isn’t paying attention, for the camera or for avoidance it isn’t clear.  
“We just don’t matter?” Cleo asks.  
“Some of you-,”  
“So, you want to pick and choose, not very scientific,” Cleo says. “You are just like her Teresa, and you shouldn’t be proud of that, you should be very afraid of it.”  
“Your mother isn’t the villain you make her out to be,” Teresa says. Cleo swings for her, but before she can land the hit, there’s a disruption in the music on the tape recorder, from where it got hit in the fight with the crank, and for just a moment, the music stops. Curie catches Cleo’s hand before it hits Teresa.  
“You’ll kill her given a chance, I can’t allow that,” Curie says. The music starts again and Marie drops Cleo’s hand.  
“I,” Marie stumbles.  
“You fucking see what Ava is? You see what she has done?” Cleo asks Teresa. “Or are you so blind that you just don’t see it?”  
“Your mother has done brilliant things,” Teresa says.  
“Sure, tell that to Marie, tell that to Minho, to Alby, to Chuck, to Ben, to George, to,” Cleo stammers, “Janson.”  
“To Janson?” Thomas asks.  
“No,” Newt says, “Janson.”  
Janson is walking down the corridor towards them, it takes a moment for him to notice what is off, but he starts to raise his gun anyway. “Fuck,” Cleo says.  
“This way,” Teresa pulls them towards the elevator.  
“Curie,” Janson calls. “Curie obtain and retrieve.”  
“How about fuck you Janson?” Cleo asks, reaching for her gun. Teresa opens the lift door and shoves Cleo in first. “What are you doing?”  
“Saving you,” Teresa says, watching the others get in.  
“Teresa, don’t be a fool,” Janson warns her as he gets closer.  
“I think I have spent most my life trying not to be, and it hasn’t worked out,” Teresa says before hitting the emergency button, shutting down the connection between the elevator and the corridor, letting them escape. Janson points his gun at the glass and tries to shoot through, but it doesn’t work. The glass too thick. He reaches for his radio to call backup without taking his eyes off Marie. Who waits for the others to start disappearing out the alternate elevator exit, and then she looks at Janson and raises a finger to her lips.  
“Playing them for fools are we Curie, that is a development,” Janson mumbles. She disappears out the other exit with the others and Janson informs others through the radio that the immunes are wondering the building. A warning system starts to set off, little blinking lights next to the main ones, almost unnoticeable, unless you know what they mean.  
Janson still not exactly sure what happened turns to Teresa. “You were going to make a mistake,” Teresa says.  
“I think you are the mistake Teresa,” he grabs her wrist and she uses her spare one to reach into her pocket and pull out the bloody rags.  
“I think you are going to want to hear me out,” Teresa says. “You’ve already tried to shoot him once.”  
“Him? Thomas?” he asks.  
“And I think we need his blood,” Teresa says, “more than anyone’s. We have to test this, right now.”

“Is it my mind playing tricks on me, or did Teresa actually just help us?” Newt asks.  
“I don’t think it was selfless,” Cleo says, “but I think maybe she did.”  
“Teresa is complicated,” Marie says. “She does think she is doing the right thing, but she isn’t. She can only see the greater good.”  
“Ava would kill off an entire generation to save the one before it” Cleo says, “Ava let Teresa believe that was the way, but Teresa also let herself believe that. Ava is manipulative and she is wicked and she is cruel, but I didn’t do what Teresa did, you didn’t do what Teresa did, Tommy didn’t. So, Teresa isn’t innocent, not by a long way.”  
“None of us are innocent,” Newt says. “Not after everything we have done.”

Gally leads all the others down unto the lower level, Bessie is clinging to his hand the entire way and he is trying to focus on what he is supposed to be doing. Not all the things that could be going wrong elsewhere. Bessie, being the youngest and smallest by far starts to slow down and to avoid any trouble, Gally picks her up to carry her further. She smiles at him, even in the Wicked get up, she recognizes the boy she used to drag around the garden. The boy who made her sister smile on the bad days. Bessie may be young, but she is smart.  
Gally raises the communicator to his mouth and calls for Brenda, who doesn’t respond. “We are here, Brenda, where are you?” he asks.  
There’s a loud screech of tires and then Brenda, with a wide smirk and a large bus pulls up in front of them. She looks confused. “Get in,” she tells the kids, jumping out of the drivers seat.  
“Get in,” Gally repeats as they stand idly by. The kids start to file in and Brenda moves to Gally, who is still carrying Bessie.  
“Who is that?” Brenda asks.  
“This is Cleo’s sister,” he says handing her over to Brenda who looks even more confused.  
“Where are the others?” she asks, looking at Bessie who sees to be assessing her with a long stare.  
“You’re pretty,” Bessie tells Brenda and Brenda tries not to smile. She turns and puts her on the driver’s seat.  
“Get in,” she tells Bessie and Bessie crawls over to the next seat. “Where are the others?” Brenda repeats.  
“I was hoping with you,” Gally says.  
“Where did they go?”  
“Minho wasn’t there, he was moved, so they went to get him,” Gally says.  
“All of them?” Brenda asks.  
“I am alone, aren’t I?” Gally asks. Brenda becomes consumed with the same kind of worry that has been eating Gally up since he saw Cleo disappear out the door. Brenda looks ready to fight. “Wait,” Gally says, placing an arm out to keep her to the bus. “Stay here with the kids. Wait here. I’ll find them. But I need you to tell Jorge something.”  
“What?”  
“Just in case everything goes wrong, when he gets here, he needs to have some bliss on hand, okay?”  
“I don’t think-,”  
“Call Lawrence, he will find a way.”  
“Gally,” Brenda calls after him.  
“What?”  
“What do I do about her?” Brenda looks to Bessie.  
“Keep her safe or Cleo will kill you,” he says simply and disappears.


	36. I Need To Believe They Are

Janson practically leans over Teresa the whole time she works, rushing back and forth from piece of lab equipment to another piece of lab equipment. “Are you stalling Teresa?” Janson asks.

“No,” Teresa says.

“You remember what Curie said about Brenda, about how she was infected in The Scorch before The Right Arm, Mary made one vial of serum for her, to prolong her life, to appease the others, she made it out of Thomas’s blood. But they didn’t have any more, they didn’t even have bliss, and that was six months ago at least, and Brenda is still fine, she is walking around like nothing is affecting her, no symptoms, no virus to be seen. It makes no sense,” Teresa says, “unless…”

“Unless they lied to you,” Janson says. “You are quite gullible Teresa.”

“They didn’t lie Janson,” Teresa says looking through the microscope.

“What do you see?” Janson asks.

“Come, look,” Teresa leans away from the microscope. Janson takes a look.

“Am I supposed to know what that means?” he asks.

“It isn’t just slowing the virus down, like all the blood before, the serum we extract from the immunes, it is a temporary solution that slows the effects of the virus, only works for months at a time, which is why we need such quantities right?” Teresa says.

“Yes Teresa, I am aware of that,” Janson says.

“Well not Thomas, his blood, the enzymes in his blood, they aren’t just slowing the virus, they are fighting it,” Teresa says.

“So, it’s better,” Janson says.

“Not just better Janson,” Teresa says. “His blood is winning. It is destroying the virus. Thomas’s blood kills the virus, completely.”

“He has the cure in his blood,” Janson says.

“He is the cure,” Teresa says. “Now do you understand why I couldn’t let you shoot him?”

“You knew he was this valuable, and you let him get away?” Janson says, a temper rising. Teresa looks at him, Janson has never been the most calm of men, a skilled marksman, a valuable member of Wicked, a man who knows how to give orders. But never a calm man. And still, this anger is different, this anger is deeper, darker. Familiar.

“I didn’t know for sure,” Teresa says, like she doesn’t know now for sure, looking at Janson, at the way he looks just a little too pale.

“But you suspected,” he says.

“I couldn’t risk you killing him incase he was what I thought,” Teresa says.

“But we need more blood Teresa,” Janson says approaching her slowly. “And where is Thomas now?”

“In the building, we can find him,” Teresa says, “and if he knows what his blood can do, he will-,”

“You still trust that he would make that choice, how many times must that boy disappoint you before you realise he isn’t what you want him to be?” Janson asks. “He will never see the world like you do, like we do. He will never be the boy who is okay with what you did to his friends, to the girl he loves. He will never look at you like he looks at my daughter. He will never care what happens to you. He will never see what you are and what you deserve.”

“Janson, you are scaring me,” Teresa says. Janson smiles.

“Teresa,” Janson says softly. “Do you forget why Wicked took you in, just because we gave you a job and a purpose and a lab coat, do you think you are really any different from the others, the ones strapped to extractors and fear machines, the ones in labs and holds. What makes you different?”

“I made myself indispensable,” Teresa says. Janson laughs.

“No, no one is indispensable, not to Wicked,” Janson says.

“Janson, you’re infected, aren’t you?” Teresa asks. Janson lifts his hand and looks at the black veins that are creeping up his arm.

“Well done, Teresa, always the observer,” he says, “that’s how you noticed sweet Marie was betraying us, and then poor hopeless lovesick Thomas. I have to ask, did you think selling them all out, Cleo, Marie, Thomas, did you think that would protect you? Are you that sold on Ava’s fake affection?”

“I was doing what I thought was right,” Teresa says.

“How well has that worked out for you?” Janson asks. “You are hated by everyone who could try to protect you.”

“You need some serum, we need to find Thomas, make the cure, but we need to get you some serum first,” Teresa says. “Let’s go to the storage-,”

“There is somewhere closer, that can help me for now,” Janson says putting a hand on Teresa’s shoulder and holding a gun to her side with the other hand.

“Janson where are we going?” she asks.

“To get some serum.”

“We don’t leave without them,” Harriet says.

“You really think they are coming back?” Sonya asks. “You know what Vince said, it was a suicide mission.”

“You didn’t spend six months with them,” Harriet says, “if anyone can pull this off it is them.”

“But what if no one can, what if it is impossible?” Sonya asks.

“I have seen them do impossible things before,” Aris says.

“You have that much faith in them, you knew them for a week and then for like a day before they ran off, how can you be that confident?” Sonya asks.

“Newt is your brother Sonya,” Harriet says, “how can you doubt him.”

“I don’t doubt him,” Sonya says, “but I don’t know him, and he didn’t give me any chance to.”

“Newt is loyal, Newt is honorable,” Aris says, “he wanted to save his friend. He didn’t want to abandon you again, he wanted to fix a mistake, and he will come back to you and then you will know him and you will understand what we have been telling you all along.”

“You hear stuff on the radios and you can’t even contact them, how do you know it’s them?” Sonya asks. “How do we even know they are still alive?”

“Because I don’t think anything can kill Cleo,” Harriet laughs, “and Brenda is pretty damn stubborn when it comes to living too.”

“We don’t have a single idea what has happened to them in the time they’ve been gone, and you want to wait, and risk Wicked,” Sonya says.

“They risked Wicked for us,” Aris says.

“Did they, because it seems to me, they wanted their people,” Sonya says.

“When I didn’t know if you were dead or alive Sonya, when I didn’t know if I would ever see you again, it was them that kept me going, not Vince, not the people I knew before, it was these strangers that were so willing to risk their lives for you and Aris, and sure they wanted to rescue their friends too, but it was never just like that,” Harriet says.

“They would do anything for Marie, especially Cleo,” Aris says, “and she left Curie in the dust to make sure we got back safe.”

“Even if they are all the things you think they are, we still don’t know if they are even alive,” Sonya says.

“I need to believe they are,” Harriet says.

“You want to believe it so badly you are willing to risk more time in this mess to wait for them?” Sonya asks.

“They would have waited for you,” Harriet says.

“I want my brother back, I want a chance to know him, I want what Wicked too away,” Sonya says, “but I also want a chance to live, to survive,” she takes Harriet’s hand, “I want a chance Harry, I want a chance.”

“I know, and I will make sure you have one,” Harriet says. “But we can’t leave yet.”

“You knew them six months,” Sonya says.

“Might as well have been six years,” Aris says, “it is like that with them. If you mean something to them, there is nothing they won’t do for you. We are family, you, Harriet and I, but they are like family too. Newt literally is.”

“Are you sure it isn’t just you have a crush?” Sonya asks Aris.

“I don’t have a crush,” Aris says.

“You don’t fool me Aris, I know you too well,” Sonya says.

“Even if I did, it isn’t the point,” Aris says.

“I want to see them safe, but I also don’t want to risk our safety, that we have worked so hard for, for what might be ghosts,” Sonya says. “If I knew they were alive, if I had proof, I would be on your side, without a doubt. You know that. I just… I need something more than faith.”

“You might not believe in them, but don’t you believe in me?” Harriet asks.

“Harriet I would follow you to the ends of this earth and off the edge if you told me that was the plan, so if you say we wait, we wait, and I will stand by you, you know that. But I am asking you, to please, please just think about the choice you are making, just think about it, please,” Sonya says.

Everything that Aris and Sonya went through at Wicked, Harriet doesn’t know all the details but she understands. Aris chose to stand against the torture, to make a point about how it only made him more determined to take them down, to fight against what was trying to hurt them. But it took a different effect on Sonya, it nearly broke her. The idea of never seeing Harriet again, was already too much before anything else. Harriet wants to take her away from it all, to work towards fixing what was damaged and to put the world and the life Wicked created for them, behind them. She wants to make her happy, and keep her safe. She loves her more than she thought was possible to love a person and she never wants to see her sad. But also, Harriet knows what Cleo and the others walked into and she knows why. She understands exactly why they made their choices and she knows if it had been Sonya, she would have done the same. So, she feels she owes it to them, to her friends, to the ones that protected and shielded, and helped her. The ones that helped save her girl. To at least, at the very least, wait, just a little while longer.

The communicator crackles again and Sonya sighs. “It’s static,” she says.

“Lawrence,” the crackle passes and Brenda’s voice is clearer than it has ever been.

“Is that?” Aris asks.

“That’s Brenda,” Harriet says turning the volume up.

“If you can hear me Gally asked me to pass on a message, or a favor. It’s for Cleo, I think,” Brenda’s voice is loud, but they can’t hear the other half of the conversation.

“Gally?” Harriet asks. “Isn’t he dead?”

“Okay, I need to get moving,” Brenda says. “Thomas and the others are waiting, I think. Can you just it to Jorge in time?”

“They are alive,” Harriet says, “they are, is that the proof you needed?”

“She didn’t mention Newt,” Sonya says.

“She said the others,” Aris says, “we have to assume that means Newt and Fry…”

“We need to tell Vince,” Harriet says.

“You think he will like this?” Sonya says.

“Not at all, but we have to tell him.”

Janson brings Teresa into a room, one of the test rooms. “Janson what are we doing here?” Teresa asks before setting eyes on the cranks behind the glass. She freezes up a little bit. “Janson we can’t be in here.”

“They creep you out, don’t they?” He asks. “Shouldn’t they fill you with a sense of duty, we were trying to find a way to reverse the virus, weren’t we, for a while?”

“We found that once you turn, you don’t come back, you can’t,” Teresa says.

“If you believed that, or if Wicked believed that, we don’t we keep them?” Janson asks.

“Why are we here?” Teresa asks. Janson points to something at the side of the room. “We came for serum,” Teresa says before looking where he is pointing.

“And serum is exactly what I am going to get,” Janson says, pushing her forward. She brings herself to look and she sees the machines, the type they had in the facility in The Scorch, the type that Wicked drugged the immunes and then strung them up to, to syphon from their blood. The Harvest machines, as Jason liked to call them.

“Janson, I got your point, I don’t want to make you mad, I shouldn’t have let them go, are you done scaring me now?” Teresa asks.

“Oh, you really think this is some tactic?” Janson asks. “You are gullible.”

“Janson, you can’t be serious.”

“Here is the facts Teresa, I am not immune, I am infected and it is spreading. And if you can see it, so will Ava, and if I don’t get it under control, she will not let me out with the evacuation. I do not have the time to find serum halfway across this goddamn labyrinth of a building and locate Thomas. But I need to, so I need serum for now, before Thomas,” Janson says. Teresa tries to pull out of his grip now, but Janson is bigger and stronger and fueled by The Flare. She can’t fight him as he tries to strap her into The Harvest machine.

“Janson,” he tries to protest.

“You are immune Teresa, you are just another valid source of serum for the greater good,” Janson points out, “besides you let Thomas go, did you think that would go unpunished?”

“Janson you can’t do this,” Teresa says, “it won’t be quicker, the sedative slows the production rate of the-,”

“No Teresa, I am not sedating you,” Janson says. “The fear will make it work faster, the pain-,”

“Janson no,” Teresa tries.

“Shut up!” Janson yells at her. “What makes you think you can do or say anything! What are your chances here?”

“Janson,” she pulls against the restraints he has put her in trying to stop him hooking her up to the machine fully, but Janson is focused, unbothered by her flailing, her pleading.

“You always said the end justified the means, not when you’re the means huh?” Janson chuckles, “always so willing to sacrifice others, you are Ava’s daughter, aren’t you, so much more than Cleopatra ever was.”

Teresa swings her leg and kicks his arm holding the gun just as he finishes hooking her to the machine. The pain that rushes through her is excruciating and she screams out. Janson in the impact let off one bullet and it hit some of the control paneling for the room, the lights start to flicker and the warning lights come on. Janson looks to the cranks who are walking around their glass cells, glass cells that are no longer locked by the system and any amount of pressure on that glass would let it give way. He looks back at Teresa who even in her pain is aware of what is happening.

“We need to go,” Teresa tries one more time.

“I do,” Janson says. He looks at her, as the machine so slowly tries to pull the immunity from her blood. “What a waste,” he says as he leaves, leaving Teresa unable to move and stuck with the knowledge that at any point, those creatures they have kept in this facility, to test and experiment on, could get to her and she wouldn’t be able to do a thing. It doesn’t take long for one of them to bump the glass and for it to shake, and Teresa’s screams catch their attention, no longer so docile and they start to move towards the glass like they know what they can do.


	37. Never Given Us A Chance

“You know, a little speed wouldn’t hurt,” Thomas says.  
“Tommy I may not have my bow anymore but don’t think I can’t hurt you,” Cleo warns him.  
“Janson will have called for backup, there will people on every level looking for us, we need to be quick and we need to be careful” Thomas points out.  
“We need to find Minho, without Teresa,” Newt points out. “Maybe more caution and less speed.”  
“I know where we need to go,” Marie says. She has let them bicker amongst themselves but she can’t anymore. Newt is getting worse with every turn they take, Thomas is so ready to fight that he can’t see two feet in front of him, and Cleo, she is so ready to die and she won’t even hide it. Whatever it takes to get the job done, no concern for what comes after. She noticed Cleo doing exactly what she had been doing, trying to say goodbye to everyone while she can. Trying to not leave anything unsaid. Marie looks at Cleo and she knows that Cleo has already written herself off as a necessary loss, and it breaks her but she doesn’t know what to say. She is still so angry and she is ready to talk to her yet, she hasn’t got the goodbye in mind or the lecture. She wouldn’t even know where to begin to say anything to Cleo right now. Not with everything they have been through, everything they have done together or for each other. As mad as Marie feels right now, she still doesn’t know how to tell Cleo the things that will hurt her the most, like how Marie knows she is the lost cause amongst them.  
“I don’t like not being able to contact Brenda,” Cleo says as they turn a corner.  
“I’m sure Gally got everyone out,” Thomas says, “he wouldn’t disappoint you, he’d sooner die.”  
“That isn’t the reassurance you think it is Tommy,” Cleo says.  
“In hindsight I can see that,” he admits.  
“Everyone will be fine Cleo,” Newt tells her, forcing her to actually look at him. She has been avoiding that. Mostly because she doesn’t know how to look at him when he looks like he does now, so lost, fading, so unlike himself. And partly because she knows things are changing at a speed none of them are ready for, and she no longer understands how she is supposed to look at him or talk to him, or anything.  
“We need to take a left, we aren’t too far now,” Marie says. The hallways are filled with memories, haunting memories. Marie is trying to push them away, focus on the plan, focus on Minho. But the more she focuses on him, the more she remembers everything he has gone through and how it is deeply linked to all she has done. How she couldn’t help him. How she helped hurt him. It doesn’t matter to Marie that she didn’t have a choice or that it wasn’t her actions, because they still used her, in so many different ways to hurt Minho. Every time they set her to guard him, every time Curie followed any order, every time they made him see all the things they made him see. They used Marie against him, and she couldn’t do a thing about it.  
“I need to tell you something,” Newt says walking next to Cleo.  
“What?” she asks, keeping her eyes on the path in front.  
“You are right,” he says.  
“Usually am,” Cleo says, “what about?”  
“I wasn’t going to tell you, not at all, and I didn’t expect you to just be okay with that, but once you realised what had happened, I guess I wasn’t going to be around for you to be mad at or alternately Tommy would have saved the day or some bullshit like he does and it wouldn’t matter,” he says.  
“Screw you for that,” Cleo says, “twice now, you tried to get out of saying goodbye to me.”  
“It’s because I don’t know how,” Newt says.  
“With courage,” Cleo says.  
“Cleo you know how I feel about you, and I know that you have all your memories back now and you remember what it felt like when I didn’t, and I guess you feel I was never supposed to have feelings for you,” he says.  
“You weren’t,” Cleo says. “It’s hard to love someone who doesn’t love you back, it’s harder for them to love you and still for it not to work.”  
“You are so stuck on the idea that we are doomed that you won’t listen to me,” he says.  
“You’re right because we don’t work Newt.”  
“You’ve never given us a chance to try.”  
“How much do you remember, about before The Maze, the virus in your system, you have to have a bit more coming back around about now,” Cleo says.  
“I don’t remember much, not enough to really understand anything,” Newt says. Cleo smiles.  
“So, you just remember The Maze really, The Scorch, this version of me and you and Marie,” she says.  
“Why do you look like that?” he asks. She smiles but her eyes are sad.  
“Because that means something, and it doesn’t mean what you think it means Newt,” she says.  
“Cleo I-,”  
“You don’t owe me a thing Newt, stop trying to pay your debt, and make sure Marie is okay,” Cleo says. “You’re the only one of us that actually can do that.”  
Three guards turn the corner and everything happens very quickly. Thomas in his impulsivity runs straight for one and knocks the taser gun from his hand, then Thomas uses the one he was holding already, at close range and knocks the guard out cold.  
“Okay,” Cleo says moving past the guards while Newt tries to shoot one with the gun he is holding. Cleo looks at Marie expecting her to follow but she doesn’t, she picks up the dropped taser gun and shoots it straight at one of the men and it hits him directly in the chest, throwing him back. “Nice fucking shot Ma,” Cleo says smiling. They share a look, Cleo so proud and Marie so overwhelmed with that she actually had the bravery to do that they both forget just a little bit the state of everything and they just smile at each other.  
“Marie,” Newt says as the other guard he was fighting with moves for her. Marie manages to hit the guard with the side of the gun knocking him right into Thomas’s shot. But the movement, the quick dodge. It has a consequence, Marie stumbles backward and finds balance by falling into the wall, but as she hits it side on, the tape recorder simply smashes.  
Thomas is the first to stop Ava Paige coming up the corridor and he reaches for one of the guns on the Wicked guards, one of the real guns. Ava sees them and starts to turn around, Cleo is so focused on Marie that she doesn’t even see her mother at first. She just watches Curie take back over.  
Curie who has been absent for all but a few seconds with Teresa, doesn’t understand how she is where she is, what is happening and why. “Marie,” Cleo asks, hoping. But Curie looks back at her and before Cleo can even respond she just over a railing dividing the corridors and slips out a doorway. Cleo wants to run after her, to chase her down, but she can hear it, Marie in the back of her head, telling her that she can't do that, that she has a job to do, that she has to save Minho. That Minho comes first.  
Curie once far enough away tries her hardest to understand. But all she can conclude is there seems to be an error in her programming, and an error in her programming risks the immunes, getting an error fixed, it is priority over anything else. So, she keeps walking.  
Thomas shoots for Ava but Newt shoves him and the shot fire into the wall. “I had her,” Thomas says and goes to follow her.  
“She isn’t yours to kill Tommy,” Newt tells him.  
“Cleo doesn’t seem bothered-,” Thomas turns to gesture to her and he notices what is causing Cleo to be so quiet. “Where has Marie gone?”  
“It broke,” Cleo says picking up the pieces of the tape recorder. “We aren’t dealing with Marie right now.”  
“Then why did Curie leave, surely, she has to stay with us, her programming is still to protect?” Thomas asks.  
“I don’t know,” Cleo says. “I didn’t ask. She just left, and I couldn’t follow her.”  
“Why?” Newt asks, mad.  
“Because Marie would want us to get Minho,” Cleo says. “And I just… I have done enough to disappoint her, we have to get Minho.”  
“We don’t know where he is without Marie, we need to find her,” Newt says.  
“We need to find Minho, and we have to just believe Curie will find us,” Cleo says. She looks to Thomas, “and when the time comes Tommy, I will put a bullet in Ava, but we need her fucking codes first.”  
“I didn’t think-,”  
“I know, luckily Newt did,” Cleo says. “Now let’s go find Minho, so I can look for Marie in good conscience.”


	38. I Don't Like Our Odds

Minho notices the lab doctors noticing the warning lights, and the way the warning signals have started to grow louder and faster. He opens his eyes and as the doctor turns back and sees him, Minho takes Teresa’s hairpin and stabs it into the doctor’s leg. The others don’t have much time to react before Minho knocks one of them back into the wall and makes a run for the door.

“This way,” Cleo says, “if I remember anything about the Wicked layout, the medical-,”   
“Why did you stop?” Newt asks. Cleo drags him against the wall and he looks very confused until the first gunshot sounds.   
“We have been located,” Cleo says. She quickly realizes how close she is to Newt and lets him go, trying to move forward away from the gunfire. Thomas turns around and using one of the taster guns tries to slow them down.  
“Tommy!” Newt says encouraging him to run. “There is too many.”  
Another six guards turn the corner and dropping the extra taser gun he picked up from the previous guards, Thomas turns back to Newt and Cleo and they all run.  
“How does this one building hold so many jackasses?” Thomas asks.  
“The world ended didn’t it?” Cleo asks. “It makes people lose their morals pretty easy.”  
“You actually believe people were decent before?” Newt asks.  
“The books suggest that.”  
“Books are fiction,” Thomas says.  
“I am aware of that Thomas.”

“I am out,” Newt says looking at Cleo.  
“Nearly,” Thomas adds looking at his own gun and the guards following them.  
“You have real bullets,” Cleo reminds Thomas.   
“So, do you,” Newt says.  
“Only three,” Cleo says, sounding more irritated than she wants to.  
“I thought you had four?” Thomas asks.  
“Is not really the time to be counting my bullets boys?” Cleo asks.   
“Sorry,” Thomas says taking another shot.   
“Do you have anything to say?” Newt asks.  
“What do you mean?” Cleo asks.  
“I don’t like our odds,” Newt says. Cleo looks at him angry.   
“I don’t like your pessimism,” Cleo says.  
“I just, I know what you’re like,” Newt says, he pulls at the collar of his outfit, too hot and too sick to be here, to be doing this. “And I don’t want you to beat yourself up if you make it out and-,”  
“You don’t,” Cleo says.  
“Any of us,” he says.  
“I don’t have anything to say Newt,” Cleo says. “I have said it all.”  
“Are you sure?” he asks.  
“I can die happy,” she says.  
“What about Gally?” he asks. “Are you going to die happy not explaining that?”  
“I don’t owe you an explanation,” Cleo says.  
“No lovers quarrel right now,” Thomas says.  
“Shut up Tommy,” Newt and Cleo say in sync.   
“What happened with you two?” he asks.  
“So, it’s less do I want to tell you anything and more you want to know,” Cleo says.  
“Fine,” Newt admits, “I would like to know.”  
“Fine,” Cleo says, “before The Maze, when I was so busy trying to chase after someone who didn’t know I exist, he was there, always.”  
“After that,” he says.  
“You really want to know, don’t you?” Cleo says. “Why?”  
“Isn’t that obvious?” he asks.  
“Are you seriously jealous?” Cleo asks.   
“I’m trying to understand, why you pull away from me, but run towards him, you want to call that jealously, then fine,” Newt says.  
“Because you love Marie,” Cleo says. Thomas looks at them both now. “Admit it or deny it, it doesn’t matter, because in the end, you love Marie.”  
“Just tell me,” Newt says. Thomas taser guns some of the guards and then throws it to the ground.  
“I’m out,” Thomas says. “Completely. Bullets and taser, we are screwed.”  
“We just have to keep moving,” Cleo says, getting back to her feet.  
“Cleo,” Newt says. He looks like he is asking her for a dying wish and she doesn’t understand it, he never should have loved her, she knows that now, and it hurts but she understands it, so why doesn’t he?  
“When we fought after I ran into The Maze,” Cleo says, “that’s when Gally and I…”  
“When Gally and you what?” he asks.  
“Stopped fighting,” Cleo says.  
“What happened?” he asks.  
“I was sad and I was alone and he… helped me,” Cleo says.  
“You make it sound so confusing,” Newt says.  
“That’s because I don’t understand it, okay?” Cleo says.   
“Guys, now really isn’t the time,” Thomas says decking one of the guards.   
“You love Marie,” Cleo says. “So why does it matter?”  
“I don’t know how I feel,” Newt says.  
“You always know how you feel Newt, you just won’t admit it,” Cleo says. “Just like how Thomas won’t admit he like Bren-,”  
“Do not bring me into this,” Thomas says grabbing a cylinder from the fallen guard’s belt and activating it. He throws it at the other guards and the tazer bomb knocks them all back.  
“I love you,” Newt tells her.  
“I know Newt,” Cleo says, “and you know I love you but things aren’t that simple.”  
“Why not?” he asks.  
“Because so much has happened, so much affects us, so much we can’t change or undo and we both know all that we know and we can’t pretend we don’t,” Cleo says.  
“It isn’t just that easy to walk away either,” Newt says.  
“It doesn’t matter if-,” a guard coming around the corner of the corridor they are walking grabs Cleo by the throat, and three others approach Thomas and Newt, with speed.  
The guard grabs Cleo with both hands, holding her against the wall. She tries to kick him, but he smacks her into the wall hard and she hits her head disorientating her. She can’t reach for her gun and she can barely even move. She can hear Newt calling her name but it is distant, like she is starting to lose consciousness. Someone hits into the guard and he lets Cleo go, dropping her to the ground. Minho, having tackled the guard off Cleo throws him into the glass wall and it shatters upon impact. He screams at the guard before turning back to look at Cleo, trying to figure out if she is real.  
“Minho?” Cleo asks, about to cry. “Minho is that really you?”   
“Are you real?” Minho asks, as both Thomas and Newt pull him into a hug.   
“Did you just throw a guy through a wall?” Newt asks.  
“Glass wall,” Minho says. Cleo pushes the other boys aside and hugs Minho.   
“You,” she punches his arm, “you scared me.”  
“I saved you, twice” he says.   
“Twice?” Cleo asks, “is that all?” She knows he means when he sacrificed himself for her at The Right Arm and now, but he has saved her more times than that, she knows it. Minho and she, although may not have always been the best at showing it, cared very deeply about what happens to each other. It was more than Cleo mattering to Marie or Minho mattering to Marie, for a while Minho was Cleo’s friend, more of her friend when Newt wasn’t, and his love for Marie only made her care for him more, and the way Cleo loved Marie only reminded Minho of all the thing that Cleo was that he admired. They were friends, good friends, and she was so glad that he was safe, and he is so glad she is real.  
“We need to go,” Thomas says seeing more of the masked guards starting to appear around the corner. “Like now, right now.”  
“Reunion later,” Minho agrees.   
“Curie isn’t with you, that is unexpected, but it is a temporary issue,” Janson’s voice comes from behind them. “Thomas, I really need an audience with you.”  
“Run,” Cleo says. “Run really fast. Now.”  
In the running and the chaos Cleo ends up being send down a different corridor, guards chasing her as she dodges all the taser guns and masked men. The boys head the intended way, and run down several guarded hallways, taking down Wicked personnel as they go. Cleo, at least hopes with the separation they double their chances of walking into Curie again, and although Curie may not be ideal or exactly what they want to see right now, she is on their side, it is in her programming, it is her purpose, and if they find curie, they know Marie is safe. Which is preoccupying Cleo’s mind as she runs. Where is Marie? Where is Curie? Is she safe? Is she okay? Will Cleo be able to find her? And the worst question of all she asks herself, can she actually help her? Can she undo what her mother had done, can she save her best friend?  
Cleo runs down past some doors and she is trying to remember how the system works, which turn she has to take to intercept the same route the boys would have taken, and find her way back to them. She moves past empty room and empty room and the sirens are loud now, disorientating. But even over the sirens she hears her voice. “Cleo!”   
“Teresa?”

“We lost Cleo,” Minho yells as they run.  
“I know,” Thomas says, “but if anyone can navigate this place it’s Cleo, she knows where we are headed, she will find us.”  
“She’s alone,” Minho says.  
“I know it’s been six months Minho, but you can’t have forgotten who Cleo is, if we know anything about Cleo, it is that she can handle herself, especially after everything she has been through lately,” Newt says.  
“What has she been through?” Minho asks.   
“Maybe not while we are running for our lives Minho,” Thomas suggests.  
“When aren’t we running for our lives?” Minho asks, “and has anyone seen Curie?”

Cleo looks through the glass door and she sees her, strapped to the same kind of machine that the other immunes were strapped to in the facility, the kids she found before they found Marie. “Cleo,” Teresa calls out to her. She just stares at her. The glass breaks then, and the cranks start to stumble through the shattered glass towards her. Teresa looks at Cleo through the glass, a pleading look but it doesn’t go all the way to her eyes, like she knows that out of everyone who could have found her, her luck struck out with Cleo. “Cleo,” she says, not even loud now, just sad.  
“I would say sorry,” Cleo says, readying to walk away and leave her to the cranks. “But I’m not.”  
“Thomas is the cure,” Teresa says, “Janson knows it and Janson is infected. He isn’t good, Wicked isn’t good, but Thomas, his blood it can save people, it will fight the virus and it will win. I thought you would want to know… since you aren’t immune.”  
Cleo looks at her, just as the cranks reach her, Teresa tries not to scream out as they start to tear her apart, keeping her eyes on Cleo. “Thomas’s blood Cleo, if you have never believed a thing,” her voice cracks as she screams in pain, “believe that.”   
Cleo believes that Teresa is the root of a lot of her problems, that Teresa deserves to rot and die in this place, but she can hear Marie, like a conscience in the back of her mind. So, she raises her gun and opens the door, just enough to put a bullet in Teresa’s chest. A mercy killing. Even if Cleo doesn’t believe she deserved mercy. She locks the door again and continues her running.

Cleo nearly runs right into Minho but he catches her. “Where did you go?” Minho asks.  
“Considering you are only here,” Cleo says, “clearly I took the shortcut.”  
Janson starts unloading a gun behind them and they keep running, Newt opens a door to one of the rooms, and they all rush inside. Thomas locks the door fast and Minho grabs the nearest table to push in front of it. “Think that will keep me out?” Janson asks. “Get the saw!”  
“That’s not good,” Cleo says. “Not good at all.” She looks around. “No one has found Curie yet?”  
“We have to believe Curie will find us,” Thomas says, reminding her. The whirring sound starts and Newt stares at the door. Cleo is staring at Newt who is looking so much worse, the veins on his neck now, are evident, his hair messy, his eyes… she can’t look at his eyes.   
“No one got any serum?” Cleo asks.   
“We were running,” Thomas reminds her. Cleo thinks back to Teresa, about what she said about Thomas, she also thinks about how she was hooked up to one of those machines, and maybe if she had been thinking she could have grabbed whatever the machine had harvested. But it was too late now. The door starts to shake from the saw.  
“Any ideas?” Minho asks. Thomas looks around and then to Cleo. Cleo shakes her head at him.  
“Only one,” Thomas says.   
“I hope we aren’t thinking the same thing,” Cleo says.  
“Can you think of anything better?” Thomas asks.  
“No, but I hoped you would,” Cleo says, “I usually joke about dumb ideas like this.”  
“Well, I think the dumb idea is all we have,” Thomas says.  
“Can you two stop the sibling bickering?” Minho asks.  
“What’s the idea?” Newt asks. Thomas and Cleo share a look and then they both move to pick up a heavy object, and as the two of them throw it through the glass, Newt and Minho quickly realise the idea. Cleo and Thomas watch as debris hits the water.  
“I think it’s deep enough,” Cleo says.  
“Okay,” Thomas nods, “it’s doable.” Thomas looks to Minho and then to Newt. “Just need a running start.”  
“Are you sure about this?” Minho asks. Cleo laughs.  
“I jumped off a bridge yesterday, what’s different here?” Cleo asks.   
“You jumped off a bridge?” Minho asks.   
“You sure about this Thomas?” Newt asks.  
“Not really,” Thomas admits.   
“Nice pep talk,” Minho says.  
“Yeah, we are all bloody inspired,” Newt says.   
“Count of three?” Thomas asks.   
“Just fucking run,” Cleo says, and jumps.  
“Three,” Thomas says and they all jump into the water below.


	39. Am I Missing Something

When they break the water for air, Cleo seriously regrets being not in guard uniform, her jumpsuit soaked through and freezing. Thomas is looking up to the tall window they jumped from, at Janson, who stands amongst the shattered glass. He starts to flip him off and Cleo grabs his arm and tries to drag him out of the water. “We aren’t done running,” Cleo reminds him.  
“Are we ever done running?” Newt coughs.  
“Can anyone be positive, even just lie for a moment?” Minho asks.  
“I don’t like to lie,” Cleo says getting out of the water. She offers her hand to Newt to help him up and he reaches for it and then tries to pull Cleo back into the water. She stumbles but doesn’t fall in and the taser bullet misses her by a few inches. “Thank you,” Cleo says to Newt, and he tries to smile.  
“Any time,” he coughs. Cleo feels for her gun and it is still there, tucked safely under her clothes. She turns and as Minho gets out the water beside her, five Wicked guards approach slowly, backing them to the pool, knowing they’re easier targets there, all guns non-lethal, but pointed at them.  
“Now would be a good time to give up,” one of them yells. “You’ve given a good chase, but we don’t want this to get messy.”  
“Still want to go down swinging?” Cleo asks Newt.  
“It was always the plan,” he says.  
“Nothing to say this time?” Cleo asks.  
“I don’t think I have the time,” Newt says. Minho goes to run at one of the guards, but before he gets even close, one of them at the back turns the tasers on each other guard. None of them expect it, none of them are ready and they all fall down.  
“What?” Thomas asks. He steps towards them and pulls off the mask. Cleo smiles.  
“Gally?” Minho asks.  
“You guys are nuts,” Gally tells them. Cleo’s expression changes from relief to worry very quickly.  
“Where is-,”  
“She is safe, she is with Brenda, you trust Brenda,” Gally says, like his life depends on her liking the answer.  
“How is Gally here?” Minho asks.  
“Did you-,” Cleo doesn’t get to finish this question either.  
“No,” Gally says, “I couldn’t find anything, that place is worse than The Maze, but I have a backup, Brenda is bringing something. I promised I wouldn’t let you down, didn’t I?”  
“What is happening right now?” Minho asks.  
Cleo hugs him, it doesn’t matter she is soaked and cold, and filled with panic and all the worry of what they have left to come, because seeing Gally be here, right now, at least brings her comfort. “You didn’t die,” Cleo tells Gally. He smiles down at her.  
“I always come back, don’t I?” he asks.  
“Am I missing something, like really missing it?” Minho asks.  
“A lot really,” Thomas says, “but we don’t have time to fill you in right now. We need to run.”  
“Gally,” Minho says.  
“Good to see you Minho,” Gally says letting go of Cleo and letting her help Newt to stay up. Newt isn’t looking good at this point, tried and sickly and he needs the help he can get.  
“Is it?” Minho asks. Gally smiles.  
“I’m glad you’re okay” Gally says.  
“Why are you helping us?” Minho asks as they run through the streets. “We left you for dead.”  
“You thought I was,” Gally says, “besides, no one is perfect.”  
“Cleo put a bullet in you,” Minho says. Gally chuckles.  
“Yeah,” he says, “she won’t live that one down.”

Brenda is driving around the city trying to out chase the ones following her. Bessie sat in the seat nearest, talking away, while everyone else sits in silence. Brenda is trying to understand how such a young child is acting so very calm in this situation, she guesses she shouldn’t be surprised, given it is Cleo’s sister. But Ava is also her mother, so genetics aren’t everything.  
“Shit,” Brenda says as the road in front of her becomes blocked off by a set of Wicked soldiers and a few cars. The man in front smiling like he has won. Brenda looks around her, knowing where she is, and how painfully predictable Wicked seems to be. Brenda grabs something from the dash and then looks at Bessie. “Stay here,” she tells her and then turns to the rest of them, “all of you, stay here.”  
“Where are you going?” one asks.  
“I’ll be right back,” she assures them all and steps out the bus.  
Brenda walks out in front of the bus, hands to her side, slowly. “Time to give in now, return the immunes to us and there will be no more trouble,” the man says. All eyes are on Brenda, who is watching them intently and she is smiling. She smiles right up to the moment she sets off the flare.  
The men all look confused and then the hook of a crane lands next to Brenda, the crane being operated by Frypan, their escape plan. Brenda is quick to hook the bus to the crane before the men register what is happening and she slips back into the bus before the gunfire starts. “Keep your heads down,” Brenda says, “belts on and please, please, please hold onto something.”

Ava is collecting all she can into a bag, preparing for the evacuation. She puts vials of serum and files into a side bag and she doesn’t even look up when the door opens. “Ava,” Curie’s voice echoes in the emptiness of the room.  
“Curie?” Ava asks, looking at her, “what are you doing here?”  
“I have encountered a problem,” Curie confesses.  
“I am sure you will find a way around it, you are programmed with a certain skill level-,”  
“There is an issue in my programming,” Curie says. Ava shakes her head. “And a problem with my programming overrides any other priority as it threatens my ability to carry out my missions without hindrance or potential danger.”  
“That simply isn’t possible, we tested for everything, your programming is flawless, some of Wicked’s best work,” Ava says. “You are one of our finest creations. It simply isn’t possible that you are malfunctioning-,”  
“Like it isn’t possible for Brenda to still be alive without access to serum? Except I have seen her on the other side of the wall. Or like how it isn’t possible for Gally, Subject A9 to still be alive after Cleopatra shot him dead in front of us? Yet he was talking with Cleopatra like nothing was different, nothing had changed and he hadn’t had a bullet put in him. Or like how it isn’t possible for me, when fully activated to lose time?” Curie asks. Ava starts to process what Curie is telling her.  
“You’re losing time?” she asks. Curie nods. “That isn’t ideal, but it isn’t a problem-,”  
“It is a danger for the immunes,” Curie says. “I am programmed to protect them and I am a threat to them if I cannot account for missed time.”  
“You cannot be a threat to the immunes, your programming simply won’t let you,” Ava assures her.  
“I don’t think it is that straight forward Ava,” Curie lifts her arm and pulls back her sleeve showing the teeth marks in her arm. Ava looks paler for seeing them and she loses her calmer approach.  
“I see.”  
“I am missing an estimated days’ worth of memory, when I was only partially active, I still had access to all of Marie’s memories and I was aware of what she was doing at all times, this is just gone, no memory,” Curie says, “I have no idea how I got these marks, but,” she pulls her sleeve up further and shows a small bruise starting to form, “I also don’t remember getting a serum injection and yet I have.”  
“So, someone is protecting you, but they all know you are Curie?” Ava asks.  
“I still have Marie in here, else they wouldn’t have,” Curie points out.  
“So, you think it is Marie?” Ava asks.  
“I am unsure what it is at all, which is what concerns me, I remember locating the immunes and then I have this one image of Cleopatra and Teresa here in this building, and then more nothing,” Curie says.  
“I saw Cleopatra, she was with Thomas,” Ava says.  
“And Teresa?” Curie asks. Ava shakes her head.  
“No, no Teresa,” Ava says.  
“So, either something happened or I cannot even rely on the memory I have,” Curie says. “I need to fix this programming issue else I am a risk to the immunes.”  
“You seem to be in control again now, and given what little time we currently have with the escaping immunes, and Cleopatra being in the building, I think the blip shouldn’t be a concern, I think you should redirect your focus on finding Cleopatra and the others,” Ava says.  
“Thomas,” Janson says from the doorway. “Curie you need to find Thomas.”


	40. Real

“Thomas?” Ava asks. “I think all of them are responsible and I think given the current situation with the development of The Flare we need all we can get.”  
“You just need Thomas,” Janson says.   
“Why would that be?” Ava asks.  
“Teresa analyzed some of Thomas’s blood,” Janson says. “After finding out Brenda survived for six months with no symptoms, she figured something about what Mary gave her had to be different, and the only thing she could think of was the blood. Thomas’s blood. So, she ran it, and sure enough his blood doesn’t just fight the virus, it kills it, completely. Thomas isn’t just an asset, he is the cure.”  
“Where is Teresa now?” Ava asks.  
“Unimportant, if I can find Thomas, I can make the cure,” Curie says, “I watched Teresa in the labs for days, I observed the process to every detail.”  
“And Curie isn’t programmed to forget,” Janson says.  
“Okay, Curie your orders,” Ava says. “Find Thomas, make the cure, quickly.”  
“Have we started evacuation already?” Janson asks. Ava nods.   
“The virus increasing at the rate it is we have decided to move some personnel now, to minimalize risk, and we shall continue the work here, once the immunes are located and as and when we will move more or bring them back,” Ava says.  
“Are you evacuating?” Janson asks. Ava nods.  
“Curie what are you still doing here?” Ava asks.  
“My glitch” Curie says.  
“Don’t worry about it, you have your orders,” Ava says.  
“Find Thomas, make the cure,” Curie says.  
“Yes,” Ava confirms.  
“Orders received,” Curie says getting up and leaving. She see’s Janson’s face as she leaves, the sweat, the sickly pale. But Janson isn’t her mission. Janson does not matter.  
“You’re evacuating?” Janson asks again.  
“I am,” Ava says.   
“Do you really think that is wise?” Janson asks.   
“Janson, with all due respect, I am way above you, and your opinion on my decisions does not bother me,” Ava says. “Have you seen Teresa? She needs to be ready to leave.”  
“You are evacuating, Teresa?” Janson asks.   
“Yes, is that a problem?” Ava asks.  
“When exactly are we leaving?” Janson asks.  
“You’re staying here, you are head of security, you need to keep this place secure, and given that a bunch of adolescents managed to break in you could be doing a better job Janson.”  
“You think it is my fault that Cleopatra got in?”  
“I think your job is to keep people out, and someone has not been kept out,” Ava says, “which sounds like a failure in your department.”  
“I am the best Wicked has,” Janson reminds her.  
“Besides your daughter,” Ava points out.   
“My reprogrammed, daughter, as I don’t doubt you remember Ava, my normal daughter, was more of a hindrance to our security than a help,” Janson says.   
“And who’s fault would that be Janson?”  
“Yours,” Janson says, “she would have let a lot happen Ava, but you had to go and put Cleo in The Maze, as soon as someone died and she knew her friends were in danger, you’d lost her.”  
“Teresa kept her head up” Ava says, “now will you go locate her please?”  
“Sure,” Janson says, “if that’s my orders.”

“How far to the tunnels?” Cleo asks, leaning on a parked car. Thomas has taken over trying to help Newt now, but she is still tired and cold and not used to running.   
“Twelve blocks?” Gally says, sounding unsure. “We can make it.”  
“How do you feel?” Minho asks Newt.  
“Terrible” Newt admits.  
“You look it,” Cleo says. He tries to laugh but he just coughs. The cough feels like a stab in the stomach and Cleo has to look away from him. “Has anyone heard from Brenda yet?”  
“No,” Gally hands Thomas the communicator. “But we can try.”

Lawrence having done everything he promised the others he would, moves to stand on the bumper of a broken-down car. There’s a large bonfire and so many sick and wounded, infected and abandoned, so many of those who live on the outside of the city, gather around. Some look at him but most feel too uncomfortable and just look at the fire as it burns.   
He lifts down his hood and there’s an unrest in the crowds. “Don’t be scared,” Lawrence says, as someone helps him climb up from the car to the back of the truck behind it. There he stands even taller, above most of the crowd below, and he looks at them, with confidence and with clarity. “I may not be pretty,” he says, “but we all know who the enemies are. Cowering behind those walls.” There is a cheer from the crowd and some of Lawrence’s men make more space for people to see him, knowing what is to come. “They have a name, for people like us in there,” Lawrence says, voice rising with every word, “they call us cranks. But I say that they are the monsters! They’re the ones who started this war, they took our children, they killed our friends, they built tall walls to keep us sick and them healthy. They take and they take and they say it is in the aid of the great good, but they are neither great nor good. They are Wicked. They use their power and their guns and they think they can have it all, and let no one else breathe. I have met those that have faced Wicked, I have seen the horrors. I have met the mislead and the abandoned, and I am one of them. They may choose to ignore us. They may build their Last City, and harvest from our children. They started something, but tonight we will finish it. Follow me, follow me and we will show them the faces of the people they have chosen to forget. Follow me and the city is yours.” The crowd is with him, the rage is swelling and the people are ready. So, when Lawrence taps the side of the truck, and it drives forward, he knows he has done what he needed to do. He knows what comes next and he is ready.   
The truck explodes on impact with the city wall, and it crumbles, falling. The precious divider that had kept the outside world out has fallen with Lawrence, and the people start to swarm.

The explosion nearly knocks Cleo off balance, but Gally catches her. “You have to stop doing that,” Cleo says.  
“Catching you?” Gally asks.  
“Yes,” Cleo says.  
“I made you a promise,” Gally says, “I intend to keep it.”  
“What is going on with those two?” Minho asks.  
“I wish I understood,” Thomas says, still trying to get the communicator to connect. But the sounds of all the people running, the rioters, the outsiders and the gunshots. They all look at each other.  
“I don’t think we have time to stand around,” Cleo says.  
“We have to keep moving,” Gally agrees, helping Newt up.  
“Keep trying,” Cleo tells Thomas, “but try and run too.”  
They make it a good distance before Cleo sees the first sign of fire. She freezes as soon as she sees the smoke. “Cleo?” Newt asks. “What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing,” Cleo says trying to blink it away, but the smoke won’t clear because it isn’t in her mind. “Is that fire?”  
“Oh yeah, that’s fire, we need to move,” Thomas says.   
“Like real, fire?” Cleo asks.   
“Supposed to fake fire?” Minho asks.   
“Supposed to just in my head,” Cleo says.  
“Cleo, the city is burning,” Gally says. She nods.  
“Okay we need to move faster,” Cleo says.  
“We do.” 

“Thomas are you there?” Brenda asks, pacing. “Gally? Cleo? Anyone…? Thomas, do you read me, it’s Brenda.” She hears nothing and she starts to pace more. “Thomas! It’s Brenda. Do you copy?”   
“Is everything okay?” Fry asks. Brenda shakes her head.  
“I can’t get a hold of them,” Brenda says. “Gally should have found them by now.”  
“It’s them,” Fry says. “They’ll be okay.”  
“You sound so sure,” Brenda says.   
“I read you Brenda, it’s me,” Thomas’s voice makes it through.   
“Where the hell are you guys?” she asks.   
“We got Minho, we are on the way to the tunnels now,” Thomas tells her, he pauses. “Brenda Newt isn’t doing so good, and we haven’t had any luck on our end.”  
“Listen don’t worry about that, I’ve got the serum,” Brenda says, looking at the vial in her hand. “Okay?”  
“Okay,” Thomas says.  
“But no listen Thomas, something is up,” Brenda says, “Lawrence is gone.”  
“What is she talking about he’s gone?” Gally’s voice barely makes it through the communicator, so faint and distant but Brenda hears him anyway.  
“His whole crew, everything, it’s all gone,” Brenda says, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I think you need to get the hell out of there, now.”   
“I think it’s a little late for that,” Thomas says, “I think I know exactly what happened.”   
“What do you mean?” Brenda asks. She can hear loud sounds in the background, crashing and yelling and gunshots. “Thomas? What’s happening?”  
“We are on our way,” Thomas says. “Get the serum ready. Over.”  
“Thomas, Thomas wait, what is happening?” Brenda asks. But he is gone. 

They make it to a clearing before Cleo starts to falter. “You okay?” Gally says.  
“I,” Cleo stammers. “I spent a long time not knowing what was real or fake, even though I should have, and now-,”  
“We are running from Wicked,” Gally says, “we have Minho, Newt is going to be okay-,”  
“Where’s Curie?” Cleo asks.  
“I don’t know,” Gally says, “but if I learned anything about her from what you told me, she will find us.”  
“There’s fire,” Cleo says, “ahead of us and behind us.”  
“It’s real,” he tells her. “ I promise you it’s real.”  
“And you?” Cleo asks. “How do I know you’re real.”  
“I’m real,” he tells her.   
“I’ve seen you so many times Gally, and you were never real,” Cleo says.  
“I’m real,” he says, taking her hand, “and I promise, I won’t ever put you through that again.”  
“You can’t make that promise,” Cleo says.   
“Yes I can.”

“Tommy,” Newt says, “I’m just going to slow us down.”  
“We are making it,” Thomas says, “all of us.”  
“It’s not all of us though, is it?” Newt asks.  
“Where is she?” Minho asks.   
“She was with us for a really long time before Curie took her back,” Thomas says, “but we got into a fight with the guards on the way to you-,”  
“You had Marie back?” Minho asks.  
“Kind of,” Thomas says, “it was temporary, it wasn’t a long-term solution, Curie is still active in her head-,”  
“You had Marie back and you brought her here?” Minho asks. “Why would you do that?”  
“She wanted to save you,” Newt says.  
“She shouldn’t have tried,” Minho says.  
“She can’t forgive herself for what she put you through,” Thomas says, “she wasn’t going to leave you.”  
“You should have made her,” Minho says.  
“No one makes Marie do anything,” Cleo says overhearing them. “She knows what you went through, she knows what they did, and she feels she owes you for everything and no matter how many times you tell her it wasn’t her fault or that no one blames her. That she couldn’t have done anything different. She still won’t believe you. She won’t forgive herself. She won’t let herself be forgiven. She thinks she was supposed to die in that Maze and that every moment since she has been on borrowed time. She wanted to do the right thing, she wanted to fix what she thinks she broke and it doesn’t matter that we wanted her safe or that we didn’t want her to risk her life, we had to be respectful of what she wanted. Because we love her. And even if it tears us apart, we have to respect what she wants more than we have to fight to protect her. I would give anything in this world for Marie, you know that, so don’t think for a second I didn’t want to keep her out of this. Keep her safe. But Marie needed to be a part of this, she wanted to. And for us to stop her, that wouldn’t have been love, that would have been our own selfish needs. She wanted to save you, because she owed you that, so we are going to get you safe, because I owe that to Marie and once, I know you are. Even if it kills me, I will find her or I will die trying. But right now, I have to do what Marie wanted, and if you try to suggest that we didn’t want to protect her, I will punch you. Out cold. Carry you if I have to. I love you Minho but don’t for a second think that you know Marie better than me, or you know what is better for her. Because then you are no better than the rest of us, and you have to be better than the rest of us.”


	41. Hope

“You’ve just got to hold onto hope,” Fry says, “they’ll be here.”  
“That’s the thing,” Brenda says, “hope is a dangerous thing. It has killed more of my friends than The Flare and The Scorch combined.”  
“Hope has saved so many of us too,” Fry says. “Cleo hoped she would find Marie in The Maze. Thomas hoped that we could find a way out. Everyone hoped they would find Sonya and Aris and Minho. And we did. We did all that. Even you-,”  
“Even me?” Brenda asks.  
“You wouldn’t be here if Cleo hadn’t hoped that could make that fall,” Fry says.  
“I think she didn’t expect to,” Brenda says.   
“Cleo has a lot of issues Brenda, but as long as she has Marie to protect, and someone to wait for, she has never had a death wish, a lot of people think she has, but they don’t understand her like I do,” Fry says. “She lives for other people, and we have to hope she learns to live for herself. But you have to trust her and to trust her is to hope. You’ve got to hold on to hope Brenda. It is all that separates us from them.”  
“The cranks?”  
“Wicked.”

“We have to keep moving, we aren’t far now,” Gally says.   
“I’m not sure we can,” Cleo says looking at Newt. “He can’t keep up like this Gally, he can’t.”  
“He will be okay,” Gally says, “I promise you.”  
“Don’t promise me that,” Cleo says.  
“Why not?”  
“Because then you will die trying to keep that promise and I can’t lose you both.”  
“You won’t.”  
“Gally I mean it, I can’t lose you, not again.”

“Cleo? Cleo can you hear me?” Brenda asks through the walkie. There’s no sound in response. No clue anyone can hear her or anyone is even trying to listen. “Cleo, I want to remind you of something, can you hear me?” She doesn’t reply. No one does. “I hope you can hear me.” She inhales a little shakily. “When we got trapped in the tunnels after the explosion, before we knew what we would do for each other, you told me you weren’t going to put yourself in danger for me. That was bullshit, we both know that now, but I didn’t tell you that I heard what you said to Thomas. He asked if you’d put yourself in danger for him, and you said you would. And I know you meant it, and I know now it is for so many other reasons but I know you meant you would, for her. Cleo, I know there isn’t anything you won’t do for Marie. I know that. So please, come back safe okay? Bring Tommy. All come back safe, for Marie.”


	42. I Can't Leave You

“Brenda,” Thomas says quietly over the walkie. “Brenda can you hear me.”

“He can’t go any further, not the way he is, not like this,” Cleo says, helping Newt to sit down against a wall. There’s fire and chaos all around them. “The more he struggles the worse he gets, we need to get the serum to him, not the other way around.” Her heart is breaking. She can hear Marie in the back of her head like an alarm blaring.

_“You could have chosen Newt, you could have helped Newt, he is suffering and you choose me, again and I didn’t want you to.”_

_“I asked you to pick him, I asked you to save him. For both of us, for me.”_

_“You could have given Newt more time, we don’t know how much he has and you could have helped him, but you chose me again. And it’s selfish Cleo.”_

“We can’t carry him there, we will be too slow, we don’t have the time,” Cleo says, she is starting to cry now. Newt grabs her hand.

“It’s okay,” he tries to tell her but she is shaking her head.

“No, no it isn’t, you don’t understand how not okay, it is,” Cleo says. “We need to get it too him, okay?”

“Okay,” Gally says, he looks to Minho. “Minho and I will go, we will go ahead, and we will bring it back.”

“What?” Minho asks.

“You’re a runner, even in this state you’re faster than all of us, and I know where to go,” Gally says.

“I’m coming,” Cleo says. Gally shakes his head.

“No, you have to stay with him,” Gally tells her.

“I can’t,” Cleo says, “I have to go.”

“No, he needs you to say,” Gally says. “You’ll just slow us down and you said it yourself, he doesn’t have much time.”

“Please don’t leave,” Cleo says, she looks so vulnerable, her eyes sad as she holds onto his arm. Gally looks at her.

“I will be right back, I promise,” he says.

“I can’t lose you again, Gally, I won’t” she says, loud enough for everyone to hear this time, clear as a bell and as adamant as Cleo always is. “I can’t. I won’t survive it.”

“I’ll be right back, I promise,” he says. “And I’ll have the serum.”

“Gally, please,” Cleo says.

“I’ll be right back.”

“I’m worried about Newt,” Brenda admits. “I remember being him, being where he is. Everything feels okay, manageable, until it isn’t. Then nothing is okay, you can’t even stand up really, the world feels like it’s closing in. You are okay, until you aren’t, and then you really aren’t. I don’t know, because it is different for every person, and I don’t know when Newt got infected, but I don’t think h he has much time left, and I can’t be okay with that.”

“They’ll be here,” Fry says. “I believe that.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Cleo tries to keep Newt calm and breathing steadily, so she talk to him, not about anything in particular, she just talks to him and Thomas sits with them, gun in one hand ready to fight anyone off, and walkie in the other, trying to get a hold of Brenda.

“Did you think it would end like this?” Newt asks.

“What?” Cleo asks, stopping her ramble about Alby’s logic when it came to job assignment in the early months. 

“You just have imagined it, at least once,” Newt says.

“Imagined what?” Cleo asks.

“How it would end,” he says.

“How what would end?” Cleo asks.

“Everything,” Newt coughs. “In any of your worst nightmares, did it end like this?”

“No,” Cleo says, “because even in my worst dreams, you and Marie, you still made it out.”

“And yet it looks like we are the only ones who won’t” Newt says. If he didn’t look so fragile, so easy to break, Cleo would hit him for that.

“You are going to make it Newt, and I am going to find Marie and I will get her back and I don’t want to hear another bullshit word from you,” Cleo says, but she can feel herself starting to cry. She bites her tongue hard trying to stop it and she looks away into the flames to the side.

“Cleo,” Newt says, trying to take something off his neck. “Cleo, I need you to take this.”

“I am not taking anything,” Cleo says.

“Please,” he says. He sounds so young, so scared, so broken. He reminds her of the Newt she met that first day in the lab, so lost, so vulnerable, so easy to love. “Cleo, please, can you do this for me?”

“You aren’t dying here Newt,” Cleo says.

“Just-,”

“Not because of me,” Cleo says, “I won’t let you die because of me.”

“It isn’t because of you,” Newt says. “It never was your fault. Everything your mother did, everything Wicked did, all it took and all we lost, to get here. It wasn’t your fault, not any of it.”

“But this is,” Cleo says, tracing a hand gently over the dark veins in his neck. “This one actually is.”

“You couldn’t have done anything,” he tells her.

“I could have Newt, I actually could have, I didn’t have a fix but I could have given you more time,” Cleo says.

“We are all on borrowed time, not just Marie, we all are,” Newt says. “I am just glad I got to spend my borrowed time with you, with her, with the people I love.”

“Don’t,” Cleo says, “stop talking like you’re trying to say goodbye.”

“I don’t know when I will stop being able to make sense Cleo, I have to say goodbye while I can-,”

“You aren’t going to die, not on my watch Newt, you aren’t,” Cleo says. He takes his hand and puts it on his chest, over his heart, and she can feel his heartbeat. So fast, so frantic, and only getting quicker.

“Don’t blame yourself for this,” he says, “please don’t blame yourself for this Cleo.”

“I could have helped you, I could’ve protected you,” Cleo says.

“You and Marie,” Newt says, almost laughing, “you think you can save everyone. I love that about you, but you have to understand. When you lose people, that isn’t on you. You are doing everything you can. But sometimes you just lose people. Like Chuck, like Alby-”

“No,” Cleo says. “Not like Chuck, not like Alby, I had serum Newt. I could have helped you.”

“You had serum?” Thomas asks. “Where is it?”

“I haven’t had it since we got through the tunnels,” Cleo says.

“Where did it go?” Thomas asks.

“Don’t yell at her Tommy,” Newt says, sounding like he is fading.

“I gave it to Marie,” Cleo says.

“Marie has it?” Thomas asks. Cleo shakes her head.

“You don’t understand, Tommy, I gave it, to Marie,” Cleo says, slower this time.

“Marie is infected?” Thomas asks, voice stuttering.

“She got bitten in the tunnels,” Cleo says, “trying to protect me.”

“Come on Thomas,” Brenda says hitting the communicator again. “Where are you?”

“Brenda?” comes Gally’s voice from further up. “Brenda you better be quick.”

“Where’s Thomas, Cleo, the others?” she asks, seeing only Minho and Gally at a distance.

“Do you have it?” is all Gally says.

“Where are they?”

“Brenda, can you hear me?” Thomas says to the communicator, eyes on Cleo, who is trying to keep Newt awake. “Brenda, do you copy?”

“I’m here,” Brenda says, “Thomas where are you, Gally just got here-,”

“You need to get everyone out” Thomas says.

“What?” Brenda asks. Thomas looks at Cleo, he is asking her for her approval, for her agreement, for the reassurance she is also willing to do what he is. She nods, before looking back at Newt. He knows why she is willing to do it. She won’t leave without Marie and if she loses Newt, she can’t live with herself, not knowing what she did. But she could be okay, knowing Gally made it out, with Brenda, and he was safe, and that could give her peace of mind. Enough to let them go and leave her to die. Next to the boy she loved and is losing and the one who loved the girl she loved almost as much as she did. She could die like that, and she is willing to.

“You need to get everyone out,” Thomas repeats. 

“I’m not leaving without you, they just got here, we have time,” Brenda says.

“Lawrence, whatever he did, he brought down the city, not just Wicked, this whole place is falling apart,” Thomas says, “Newt doesn’t have long and we don’t know where Marie is.”

“We have time,” Brenda says.

“Don’t let Gally come back for us,” Thomas says looking at Cleo again. “Please, make sure he leaves with you.”

“We aren’t leaving you,” Brenda says.

“Even though you know you should? That it is time to turn around, to stop fighting?” Thomas asks.

“I’m not giving up on you,” Brenda says.

“Even when you know you should,” Thomas says.

“Don’t do that,” Brenda says, “don’t use my words against me.”

“Aren’t you always right?” Thomas asks.

“No,” Brenda says, “not when it comes to you, when it comes to you, I can be so wrong, so often that it hurts.”

“Brenda, you have to get out, and you have to take them, take Bessie, take Minho, take Gally, make sure Fry is okay and you get out, you take the kids and you get out,” Thomas says.

“I can’t leave you,” Brenda says, “Thomas, I… I-,”

“Brenda, I know,” Thomas says. “And if you promise me, you’ll be safe I’ll tell you something.”

“Tell me.”

“Promise me you’ll get them out, that you’ll make sure they’re safe.”

“I promise I’ll make sure they’re safe, now tell me Thomas.”

“I care about you too much Brenda, to let you die for me and my choices, I think, if we had the chance, things could have been very different and I hope you get the chance to be happy, because you deserve it, more than most,” Thomas says.

“Thomas.”

“Goodbye Brenda.”

“Thomas our ride is here,” Brenda’s tone changes, “we coming to you.”

“She’s coming?” Cleo asks.

“I don’t know,” Thomas says.

“Cleo,” Newt says, trying to hand her something. “That this.”

“No,” Cleo says.

“Take it,” he says. Cleo puts a hand on his face, holding him still enough to look at her.

“No because as soon as I do, you’re going to give up and I can’t let you do that,” Cleo says.

“We are losing him,” Thomas says.

“No, no we aren’t,” Cleo says. Newt starts to cough up the same type of dark substance that all the cranks do. Cleo feels a shiver run down her spine, like a warning that she ignores as she pulls closer to him.

“You have to fight it Newt,” Thomas says, “stay with us.”

“Back up,” Cleo tells Thomas.

“What?” he asks.

“It’s hard for him to breathe, you need to give him space,” Cleo says.

“What about you?” he asks.

“I need to keep him grounded,” Cleo says. She is lying. No half truth or mislead this time. She is just lying, straight up lying. She can feel Newt letting go, she can feel him losing grip on who he is, and she knows any minute now he could start to fight back, to turn. She isn’t scared to die, and she wants to stay beside him as long as he can. It doesn’t matter that Thomas is immune and could be safer to be with Newt, because it is her responsibility. And it’s Newt. It doesn’t matter that he could infect her, that she could die at his hand. It matters that she stays with him, until the very end if she needs to. It’s what Marie would do.

Newt uses his strength and he pulls the chord from around his neck up and over and he puts it on Cleo, she can’t fight him because he is focusing on something, and she wants that, but she feels the goodbye in his movements. She knows he is trying to say his last words, tie up his lose ends.

“Cleo,” he says. “You can’t blame yourself.”

“Then don’t die on me.”

“Cleo, Tommy,” Newt says, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Thomas says.

“I’m sorry for what I am about to ask you,” Newt says. “I don’t want to become one of them, I don’t want to be like that-,”

“You won’t,” Cleo says, “we are going to save you.”

“Cleo,” Newt says and he tries to reach for the gun he knows she has and she pulls away, stumbling.

“No,” Cleo says.

“Please,” he says.

“No,” Cleo says.

“I need you to,” Newt says.

“Those bullets aren’t meant for you,” Cleo says.

“Got someone’s name on them?” he asks. “Please Cleo.”

“I won’t,” Cleo says.

“Tommy?”

“No,” Thomas says. “Newt, we are going to save you.”

“Tommy if you’ve ever been my friend, you’ll do this for me,” Newt says.

“Don’t you dare give up on me Newt,” Cleo says.

“I never gave up on you,” he says.

“This feels a lot like giving up,” Cleo says, tears streaming down her face. “And what about Marie?”

“Cleo?” Thomas says.

“What?” she demands, looking at him, he is staring in the other direction and when she turns to see what he is staring at. She sees Curie. Gun drawn, walking through the smoke. “Curie.”

She shoots the gun just as Thomas runs at her. She misses, but Cleo putting herself between Newt and the gun only gives Newt a distraction, and the virus starts to take over. He grabs Cleo and they stumble to concrete.

“Newt!” Cleo yells. “It’s me.”

“Cleo,” Newt says, she can see him fighting it, behind his eyes. He doesn’t want to hurt her, but he can’t stop himself. She moves upwards, knocking him a little off balance, and Curie takes another shot. It misses, and Cleo catches Curie’s gaze long enough to see it. She is fighting with herself. Marie is fighting Curie. Trying to stop her, trying to help.

“You don’t have to hurt him,” Cleo tells Curie.

“I must protect the immunes,” Curie says.

“I won’t let you hurt him,” Cleo says, getting a hold of Newt again, placing a hand on his face, trying to get him to remember who he is, to stay with her. She sees Curie raising her gun again in the corner of her eye.

“I have to protect the immunes,” Curie says, but she is shaking, Marie is fighting her with all she has to not let her shoot Newt. Cleo looks at Curie and she knows, the knows the one thing she has left that can protect him.

“You don’t have to take that shot,” Cleo says.

“I have to protect the immunes,” Curie says.

“I’m not immune” Cleo says. “So, you don’t have to protect me. Newt isn’t a threat to the immunes, because I am not immune. I never have been. It was all a lie.”

It’s like the world falls silent. Newt despite his own condition, stares at her with an understanding that has hasn’t had before. Curie watches her, trying to understand how that can be true, yet believing her entirely. And Thomas looks between the three of them. “Cleo,” Newt gasps, “she can, she can go through you now. You know what you’ve done? Curie can, Curie can take you out-,”

“There are no hands I would rather die by” Cleo says, through the tears. “But I don’t think that’s fair on Marie, is it? So, neither of us are going to die, okay?”

“Cleo you have to,” Newt says.

“Not a chance, not in this life or any life Newt,” Cleo says. He starts to lose himself to the virus again and he pushes her back, hands on her wrists, and he digs his nails in, and draws blood. She doesn’t show any signs of being in pain. She just tries to push him back, to keep him still, so when Gally gets back he can help him.

Cleo can see Curie struggling with herself, with the information, with Marie in her head. “Mary lied,” Cleo continues, “you had no proof I ever was immune, you just believed Mary, but Mary’s word isn’t more likely to be true than mine. Besides, why would I have had a serum vial if I couldn’t get infected?”

“It was a lie,” Curie says.

“You can get infected, you can die,” it’s Marie’s voice this time, just for a moment, for a glimpse.

“I’m sorry Marie,” Cleo says, “I couldn’t tell you.”

Newt, overcome by the rage and the confusion of The Flare lunges for Cleo, he knocks her back quite a way and her gun clatters to the ground. Along with the contents of her pocket. Newt grabs her with both hands leaning over her and Cleo looks up at the boy she has loved for as long as she really understood what love was, and wonders how she got here, and of all the ways she thought she would die, that this was never one of them. But it should have been, it made so much sense.

A small metal capsule lands at Curie’s feet in the chaos, and she, only interested in Thomas and his safety, in her need to use him to make a cure, looks down, not interested in Cleo and Newt the same way Marie is. But Marie doesn’t want to look. She can’t fight her, not anymore and she cannot bare witness to what she knows is about to happen, what was always going to happen. So curie looks at the metal capsule, it has a vial in it, filled with blue liquid, W.C.K.D and the number two carved in.

_“You’re not immune Cleo,” Mary says. “You never were, that’s why I gave you that necklace, just in case you needed saving.”_

_“And Bessie, is she immune?” Cleo asks._

_“No,” Mary says. “No, she isn’t.”_

_Rattling through the draw she also finds another vial, like the ones Teresa had, but it is smaller, much more like the one she wears around her neck, but it is empty. She looks at it closely and underneath the W.C.K.D engravement is a number. Number 3._

Marie recognizes even before Curie does. The exact same necklace that Cleo used to save her. The necklace with the serum in it, the built-in delivery system, the one thing that could give them enough time.

“Save them,” Marie tells Curie.

“No,” Curie says.

“Save them!”

“It isn’t my mission. They aren’t immunes. They don’t matter.”

“They matter, and if you won’t save them Curie,” Marie whispers in the back of Curie’s mind, “I’ll have to.”

“Like you co-,” Curie is cut off my Marie. Marie, now back in control of her body and very focused, grabs the vial from the floor and opening it to become a syringe, she runs to Cleo and Newt. Newt who is almost not even Newt anymore digs his nails deeper into Cleo’s arm and Cleo doesn’t really fight him. She just holds him back at arm’s length, but her arms are starting to give out.

“Please,” Newt chokes out.

“No,” Cleo whispers. “Not in this life or any.”

Gally, Minho and Brenda turn the corner, Brenda has a vial in hand and she looks so hopeful, so unlike herself, and she sees them, they all see them. Thomas on his back from where Curie knocked him down, Marie running towards Newt and Cleo, and Newt and Cleo, struggling, as Newt is about to fully give in and tear Cleo apart.

“Cleo!” Gally yells seeing her. His voice breaks her and in the sadness her arms give way and she reaches for her gun, just as Marie stabs the vial into Newt’s back and pulls him off her. Cleo not sure what happened, watches Marie pull a unconscious or possibly dead Newt off her and she can’t catch her breath, she just stares at the sky. The smoke and the lights and the pain from her wounds is apparent, and she can’t even feel her gun in her hand. She can’t feel anything. Not until Gally picks her up. “Cleo?”

“Newt,” Cleo says.

“He’s okay,” Marie says, looking at her. “He’ll be okay.”

“How?” Cleo asks.

“Bessie,” Marie says holding up the empty vial.

“Marie?” Cleo asks. Marie smiles.

“It’s me,” she says. “I am so mad at you Cleo, but I am so glad you’re alive.”

“Cleo,” Gally says, checking her injuries.

“I’m okay, just dizzy,” she tells Gally.

“We need to go,” Brenda says.

“You can’t,” Marie says.

“What?” Gally asks her.

“Thomas, his blood, it’s the cure, not serum, not a temporary fix, he can properly, cure us,” Marie says, “Newt will need that. When he wakes up.”

“How do you know that?” Minho asks.

“Teresa found it out,” Cleo says.

“You knew?” Thomas asks.

“Teresa told me, I didn’t know if it was true,” Cleo says.

“Ava has samples of Thomas’s blood, she is probably having a cure made right now,” Marie says.

“Then,” Cleo says, head steading as she pulls herself to her feet. “I better go talk to mother.”


	43. I Love You Marie

“Cleo you are in no state to be going anywhere,” Brenda says.  
“I am going,” Cleo says. Gally wants to argue, she can see it in his eyes. “Are you going to tell me what I can and can’t do too?”  
“I’m going with you, if you’re going, I can’t stop you, so I’m going with you,” Gally says.   
“Cleo, I’m-,” Marie starts.   
“No time for that, remember you never have to apologies to me” Cleo says, looking at her. Marie looks so happy and so sad at the same time. “Marie how are you here?”  
“I couldn’t let,” she says, “I couldn’t let her standby and I couldn’t let her hurt you. Or him.” She is holding onto Newt, who is still unconscious in her lap.   
“It’s him,” Cleo says, leaning down next to her, legs still unsteady.   
“What?” Marie asks. Cleo places a hand on her face, lifting her chin up.  
“You have to go with Minho and Brenda, you have to stay with Newt,” Cleo tells her.  
“What?” Marie asks. “No-,”  
“Yes,” Cleo says, “it’s him. He is why you are you right now. It should have been obvious. I should have known he would be the answer. I was never going to be what pulled you back Marie, because you don’t think I need you, but you know he needs you.”  
“Cleo,” Marie says.   
“It’s okay” Cleo says, “I promise, it’s okay. But you have to stay with him, to stay you.”  
“Cleo you can’t” Marie says.  
“I need to go get the cure, it is bigger than just you, and you know that,” Cleo says, “I made sure Minho was safe, I made sure everyone was safe. But I have to do this, you understand that, don’t you?”  
“Yes,” Marie says.  
“I’m not asking you to like it,” she offers her hand to Gally, who helps her up. “But I am going.”  
“Three of us?” Thomas asks.  
“I’m going with her,” Gally says, handing Cleo her gun from the floor.  
“You can’t be serious,” Brenda says, eyes on Thomas. Minho is already helping Marie up and trying to move Newt.   
“Brenda, I have to,” Thomas says. “You take Marie, you take Newt and stay safe.”  
“We will wait for you,” Brenda says. “Jorge has the Helicarrier. We can wait.”  
“As long as you can,” Cleo says but she looks to Marie. “But if you need to go, you have to go.”  
“We aren’t leaving without you,” Marie says.  
“We have to go,” Cleo says, taking Gally’s hand. She smiles at Marie one last time. “Keep him safe for me, won’t you?”  
“Cleo…”  
“I love you Marie, and I hope to see you soon.”

“Why didn’t you tell her?” Thomas asks.  
“Tell her what?”  
“Why you need to go, and you couldn’t just let me go?”  
“Because she doesn’t need to know.”  
“You want more than just the cure, don’t you?”  
“Thomas, leave her be,” Gally says.  
“Say it,” Thomas says.  
“I want the deactivation codes,” Cleo says.  
“More than that,” Thomas says.  
“Fine. I want to kill Ava.”


	44. Oh Cleopatra

“Do you have any idea where we are going?” Gally asks Thomas. They are walking down empty corridor after empty corridor, the lights flickering and on warning lights, like back when they escaped The Maze. Lawrence blowing up the wall and sending the city into corruption and chaos sped up all the Wicked evacuation plans. But the evacuation process is slow and specific and although they may be readying to escape the falling city, they haven’t really started yet.

“We need to get to the labs where Teresa was working,” Thomas says, trying to figure out where they are in relation to where they could see Teresa working from the scope, “it’s the one place we know will have the equipment to make the cure.”

“But we don’t have anyone to make it,” Cleo says, pointing out with leaving Marie with Newt, they don’t have anyone Wicked trained to hand, “we have to find Ava, Marie said Ava knew, so Ava will have used the samples she already had of Thomas’s blood, right?”

“Cleo, we have a better chance of just trying to make it,” Thomas says. He knows it makes little to no sense to try to argue with her, in the entire time they’ve known each other he has never once managed to sway Cleo on something she has decided. But he owes it to Marie to try. He knows what she would want for Cleo and even if he knows he can’t change her mind, he can’t do what Marie could do, he needs to try. For Marie, so he knows he did.

“We need the deactivation codes from Ava,” Cleo says. He can’t argue with that, because he wants to protect Marie as much as she does, he owes her that as well. It may not be his fault Marie went through what she did, but he feels he could have stopped it, if he had listened, if he had understood, if he had done things differently.

“Maybe you should go and locate the labs and I shall go and find Ava,” Thomas says. Cleo glares at him.

“No,” Cleo says. After everything Ava has done, to her, to Marie, to everyone, Cleo needs to see it through, Cleo needs to right the wrongs her mother made. She needs to finish what Mary started. “I am talking to Ava.”

Newt drifts in and out of consciousness and the others help him into the Helicarrier. “Are you okay?” Brenda asks Marie, but she already knows the answer. Marie was just as worried about the others as Brenda, if not more. Brenda’s heart aches at the idea of leaving them behind, but she knows it is more for Marie, worse for Marie, harder for Marie.

“I shouldn’t have let them go,” Marie says.

“We only have so many vials of bliss Marie,” Brenda says, “what we have won’t protect Newt forever. He needs this.”

“I know,” Marie says. “But it’s Cleo.”

“You worried about her?”

“I am worried about what she will do,” Marie says. “She has been through a lot, but… I don’t want her to do something she can’t take back.”

“When I met Cleo, I wasn’t sure if she was brave or stupid,” Brenda says, “I know the answer now, of course. It’s the same for Thomas.”

“Both.”

“Both.”

“You want to confront your mother, I understand that, but this place is still filled with armed guards, people still want us captured or dead, and the city is falling apart,” Thomas says.

“You tried to shoot her, less than five hours ago,” Cleo says.

“That was opportunity,” Thomas says, “you’re talking about a suicide mission.”

“I’m talking about the best option for saving our friends, the people we love Thomas, we need those codes and we need that cure,” Cleo says. Gally grabs Cleo’s shoulder and Thomas’s collar and pulls them back around a corner. Three guards talking over the radios pass them, and they go unnoticed.

“You two would be dead without me, you know that?” Gally asks.

“Many times over,” Cleo says. “Many times over.”

Janson is watching the security cameras, the whole place is falling apart but he is sure, that if he has learned anything about Thomas in all this time, it’s that he won’t give up. Even it it’s bad for him. Even if it’ll get him killed. Thomas won’t give up. And now, he needs to help Marie, so he will be coming back to try and help her. Even it is futile. Even if he stands no chance. He will be coming back to try and help her. He watches all the screens, he can see Ava preparing for evacuation, like the selfish curator she is. Janson and Ava rarely saw eye to eye at the best of times, but these days, all they have in common is exactly what makes them despise each other. They rely on each other for Wicked to work, to run, but with everything falling down, he is almost rooting for Cleopatra to get her revenge. It would be one less concern for him.

“There you are” Janson says tapping on the screen showing the security footage from the eighth floor. Cleo looks directly at the camera as she passes, like she can feel him watching her, he knows she doesn’t know, but it still makes him smile. “How convenient, you’re both here.”

“I know where we are,” Cleo says.

“How can you possibly know that?” Thomas asks, “it all looks the same.”

“Wicked buildings are laid out very specifically, and if I’m right, I know exactly where to go,” Cleo says. “When we were planning before, we got Marie back, Curie said something about Ava, about where she spent all her days, like we would want to avoid her. It was like she was helping without realizing what she was doing.”

“You actually think Curie was helping?” Thomas asks.

“Not intentionally,” Cleo says. “But it wasn’t against her programming to help us. I just don’t think she would think it was meaning anything, but she also didn’t think I would ever actually get here.”

“Cleo, what exactly do you plan on doing?” Thomas says.

“What you didn’t,” Cleo says. Thomas grabs her arm.

“You want to kill her,” Thomas says, “fine, I want her dead too. But we have to remember why we are here, we have to think about Marie-,”

“All I think about is Marie,” Cleo says. Cleo stops when she sees the big glass doors.

“Cleo, I know you have been through a lot, a lot more than anyone should have to go through,” Thomas says.

“Don’t try to be the voice of reason Thomas, not after everything you’ve pulled,” Gally warns him.

“Boys,” Cleo says. “I found her.” They look through the glass and they see her, in her office, Ava Paige.

Cleo opens the door and Ava is putting some vials into her bag, new vials, that just had made from the lab. “Thank you for finding Thomas’s blood samples for me,” Cleo says, approaching her gun drawn.

“You’re immune, why would you need it?” Ava asks.

“Not all of us are,” Cleo says. Ava sighs looking at Thomas and then at Cleo and Gally.

“Him?” she asks. “Why is it always him? I even prefer the British one at this point.”

“I really don’t think you get to criticize my choice of company,” Cleo says, “and even if you seem to think you do have the right, say one bad word about Gally, I fucking dare you.”

“You won’t kill me Cleopatra,” Ava says.

“You’ve said that before,” Cleo says, “I was willing to take the shot then.”

“You won’t shoot me,” Ava says simply.

“I put a bullet in the boy I loved, because he was a threat to Marie’s happiness, do you understand that? Do you understand what that means?” Cleo asks.

“That you have a poor understanding of love, and your loyalties are only a hindrance that gets you and those you foolishly care about killed?” Ava asks a little sarcastically.

“I have a gun pointed at you, so I’d watch it,” Cleo says. “You didn’t just threaten Marie, you took her from me, you turned her into a solider and used her to do your dirty work, you used her to hurt, harm, torture and kill, and she remembers it, all of it. So, don’t think for a moment I won’t shoot you.”

“Yes, but with Curie, you know how much you need me now,” Ava says, “not only do I have the only four vials of cure, real cure. But I am the only person around who knows how to get your precious Marie back, and that is all you want isn’t it? Your girl back?”

“Tell us what we need to know,” Gally says.

“She isn’t the only one willing to shoot,” Thomas adds.

“You don’t have any leverage, I don’t believe you are a threat to me,” Ava says.

“Have you seen Curie lately? Do you know what happened to her?” Cleo asks. “I might not be able to get my best friend back if I kill you, but I’d be serving justice. I’d be avenging her. Everything you did. I could make it right.”

“Everything I did? I was trying to save you all, trying to save everyone,” Ava says.

“Maybe in the beginning,” Thomas says, “but Wicked isn’t what it once was.”

“Speaking as someone who got stung, and shot, and was left to die,” Gally says, “I don’t feel the benefit of Wicked at all.”

“Without Wicked, you wouldn’t have met my daughter,” Ava says. Gally doesn’t respond to that.

“You can’t justify what you’ve done Ava,” Cleo says, stepping closer. Ava tries to step back but she has nowhere to go.

“Everything I did, I did for the greater good,” Ava says.

“What about dad?” Cleo asks, seeing the smoke outside the window, the flicker of flames.

“What?” Ava asks.

“What about dad, was that for the greater good?” Cleo asks.

“I, Cleopatra, I don’t know what you are suggesting,” Ava says but she doesn’t look convincing.

Cleo points the gun more directly at Ava. “You said The Flare took him, but it didn’t, it didn’t, that was a lie, that was a lie, wasn’t it?” Cleo asks. Ava looks worried now, her daughter, completely unhinged, stood with a gun pointed at her, was enough to finally do that. “That wasn’t what happened, was it?”

“Your father was infected with The Flare,” Ava says, raising her hands now.

“But that wasn’t what happened, was it?”

“He wasn’t your father anymore the moment he got sick,” Ava says.

“But The Flare didn’t take him, did it?” Cleo demands.

“The fire did,” Ava admits.

“The fire did,” Cleo repeats back to her.

“But the-,”

“The fire you started, in our house, with all of us inside,” Cleo says. Ava is scanning her, seeing if there are signs of bite marks, trying to understand how she is accessing memories that were removed even before The Maze. Her arm drips blood from where Newt fought with her, but with how fresh the wound is, it doesn’t answer her questions.

“I didn’t know you and Bessie were inside,” Ava says. Thomas and Gally share a look.

“But we were inside, weren’t we” Cleo says, “and Aunt Mary saved us, the same Aunt Mary you had killed in front of me. I was covered in ash and dirt, it filled my lungs and I couldn’t breathe-,”

“I didn’t ever mean for harm to come to you girls,” she tries.

“I don’t believe that for even a second,” Cleo says. “You hated me, because I looked like him, like dad. You wanted to protect Bessie, of course you did, she is an angel, but me, I was a just painful reminder of all your mistakes. That’s why you sent me into The Maze, because you just wanted to tie up a lose end.”

“It’s more complicated than that, I am not a villain Cleopatra, I am a doctor,” Ava says, “I am trying to save people.”

“You were trying to save yourself,” Cleo says. She looks at Ava, and Ava stares back, she looks at her neck, and sees nothing, and in seeing nothing Cleo sees everything. She sees the big picture she had been missing this whole time.

_“I gave you that necklace, once I realised there was nothing that I could do to stop Ava putting you in The Maze, I only stayed as long as I did to ensure that you wouldn’t go into The Maze without it, by the time she realised what I had done, it was too late, she shouldn’t take it back. At the time we only had three small vials of the cure, you had one, and I made sure Bessie had the other, the third is probably still a trophy around Ava’s neck, a reminder of her selfish little…”_

Ava wasn’t just driven to find a cure because she wanted to protect herself, just in case. She needed the cure. She has needed it for a long time.

_Rattling through the draw she also finds another vial, like the ones Teresa had, but it is smaller, much more like the one she wears around her neck, but it is empty. She looks at it closely and underneath the W.C.K.D engravement is a number. Number 3._

“You are infected,” Cleo says, “and that is why you are so determined to keep harvesting, to keep searching, because every few months you need more. You killed my friends, you tried to kill me, because you wanted to live, you were willing to sacrifice an entire generation, for yourself. And you managed to convince everyone else, you were doing it for the greater good.”

“You always had my intelligence” Ava says.

“I wish Teresa could see you now,” Cleo says.

“Oh Cleopatra…” Ava says.

“It’s Cleo,” she says through gritted teeth.

“And I had hoped that maybe even if it was just one soul, you had a capability of not trying to see the best in people,” Ava shakes her head. “But you even show pity to Teresa?”

“I don’t forgive Teresa, I won’t ever forgive Teresa,” Cleo says, “but what I did for her, was a mercy, what I am doing to you, is justice.”

“What you did for her?” Ava asks.

“You don’t know?” Cleo asks. “Have you seen Teresa lately Ava?”

“I sent Janson to find her,” Ava says.

“Did he?” Cleo asks, “I doubt it, he knew where he left her to die, no point going back to check on her.”

“What?” Thomas asks.

“I found Teresa hooked up to one of those harvesting machines that Janson had all the kids hooked up to in The Scorch, she was conscious but she was also surrounded by cranks, they were tearing her apart, she can’t turn, but she can still die,” Cleo says.

“How do you know Janson did it?” Ava asks.

“The last time I saw her, she was with him and he wasn’t best impressed when she helped us, besides, Teresa knew Thomas was a cure, so does Janson, he had to know that from Teresa,” Cleo says.

“So, Teresa is dead?” Ava asks, she seems genuinely sad and Cleo feels the rage building up again.

“Very dead, a bullet in the heart dead,” Cleo says. Ava looks paler now. “See I showed her mercy, I did not forgive her, I will never forgive her, but I showed her a mercy I don’t believe she deserved. I will not do the same for you.”

Ava realizes the extent to which she in danger. “I am sorry about what happened with your father,” Ava says, “I did care-,”

“Don’t try and explain, don’t try and reason what you did, for someone who claims to be trying to help, you didn’t give him a chance, and yet you are so willing to watch me and all my friends die for your prolonged survival, you honestly thing there is anything you can say that would defend that?” Cleo says.

“Cleo, calm down,” Thomas says, “we still need the codes.”

“I wouldn’t tell her to calm down,” Gally says.

“She shot you, remember, sometimes she needs to be reminded to calm down,” Thomas says.

“I’ll give you one chance Ava,” Cleo says, “tell me how to help Marie.”

“And you’ll let me go?” Ava asks. Cleo shrugs.

“Give me the cure, give me the way to shut Curie down, and sure, I’ll let you go,” Cleo says, “I just want Marie back and safe, that is all I care about.”

“It’s simple enough to deactivate Curie,” Ava says.

“I want her gone,” Cleo says. Ava sighs.

“I can tell you how to deactivate her,” Ava says.

“Wicked has nearly burnt to the ground Cleo, we will take Marie away, and no one can hurt her, no one can activate Curie, no one will be a risk to her again,” Gally says.

“I want Curie gone,” Cleo says.

“She might as well be, once deactivated, she can’t be reactivated, not without the code-,” Ava stops talking when Cleo cocks the gun again. “What do you want from me daughter?”

“I wanted a mother who was nothing like you, but we don’t get what we want in this life, so I’ll settle for the cure, and the way to save my friend,” Cleo says. Ava looks at her, Cleopatra, her eldest daughter, the one who was always too soft, too kind, too trusting. The one who had her father’s heart and Mary’s hope. Ava always hoped she would grow up and be more like her, more resilient, more hardened, more of a fighter. She got her wish, but it didn’t work in her favor. She took her daughter and turned her into something else, something that she never expected… her biggest threat.

Cleopatra was not someone she recognized anymore, she was stronger, she was fiercer and she was much more dangerous. But there was one thing Ava believed that was still true about her, she was a girl of her word, she did not lie and she would not betray.

“If I tell you, that’s it?” Ava asks.

“If you tell me, I don’t bury a bullet in your head,” Cleo says.

“It’s that simple?” Ava asks.

“Don’t test my patience,” Cleo warns her.

“Cleo, you need to-,” Thomas says, Gally puts a hand on him, trying to get him to stop talking. “She will take it too far,” Thomas tells Gally.

“I won’t let her,” Gally says.

“You won’t be able to stop her,” Thomas says.

“I won’t let her take it too far,” Gally says.

“How many vials of that do you have?” Cleo asks gesturing to the cure.

“Including mine?” Ava asks. Cleo laughs.

“How many?”

“We managed to make three from Thomas’s blood,” Ava says.

“Hand them over,” Cleo says.

“I could help you make more,” Ava says.

“Three will be just fine,” Cleo says. “Now tell me how to fix Marie.”

“Where are you going?” Brenda asks. Marie doesn’t turn around.

“I have to go after them,” Marie says.

“Marie you can’t, we don’t know what happens if you leave Newt’s side, we don’t understand what happened with Curie,” Brenda says.

“If Curie comes back, her mission is to find Thomas, I go to them either way,” Marie says.

“And we risk losing you again,” Brenda says.

“I can’t leave them out there, and I, I have an awful feeling, this all-consuming feeling and I can’t sit here and do nothing,” Marie says. “I have to do something Brenda, they’re out there for me.”

“And for him,” Brenda says gesturing to a sleeping Newt. “You need to stay for him.”

“It isn’t that simple,” Marie says.

“What if he wakes up and you, Cleo and Thomas are all gone, how do you think he handles that?” Brenda says.

“What if I don’t go to them, and we lose them, how do we live with that?” Marie asks.

“Then I’m going with you,” Brenda says reaching for her gun. Marie shakes her head.

“You promised Thomas, you promised him you’d stay, you can’t break that promise,” Marie says.

“And you can?”

“I am not breaking any promises.”

Ava sighs and tells Cleo what she wants to know, how to help Marie, to deactivate Curie. Thomas collects the vials from the table. “Are we done?” Ava asks. “Do you want to lower your gun now?”

“No,” Cleo says.

“You said-,”

“I know what I said,” Cleo says. “But I guess I am my mother’s daughter.”

“Cleo,” Gally says, “think about what Marie would say.”

“Marie isn’t here,” Cleo says, “and this, this is for me.”

“Cleo,” Ava says.

“Huh,” Cleo responds, “you must know you’re going to die because I don’t think you’ve ever called me Cleo.”

“Cleopatra when I gave you that name,” Ava says, “I wanted you to be strong, and overcome all that the world would throw at you, to take down those who opposed you.”

“And then you became what opposed me,” Cleo says. “Your mistake.”

“You were a lot of things, but you were never a liar,” Ava says.

“I standby what I said, I won’t shoot you in the head,” Cleo says, steadying her gun. “It was always going to be the heart for you.”

“Cleo,” Gally says, “don’t.”

“She deserves it,” Cleo says.

“I know, but you can’t,” Gally says.

“Watch me,” Cleo says. A gunshot sounds and the bullet hits Ava right in the skull. Thomas looks at Cleo, but Cleo looks just as surprised, her gun never being shot. Gally lowers his gun slowly.

“Gally?” Thomas asks. Gally is looking at Cleo, as her breathing falters and she starts to shake.

“Cleo?” Gally asks.

“Why did you do that?” Cleo asks.

“I wouldn’t let you go back on your word, I wouldn’t let you stoop to her level, I wouldn’t let her turn you into what she wanted you to become Cleo,” Gally says, slowly pushing Cleo’s hand down so she lowers her gun, “I wouldn’t let her make you like her.”

“But you had to-,”

“I will always value your life over mine.”

“Guys,” Thomas says. “We have a problem.”

“What?” Gally asks. Thomas holds up the vials, the three of them, one is full, but the other two are empty. “Ava took two shots?”

“We don’t have enough,” Cleo says. “Not for Newt and Marie.”


	45. Checkmate

“We need to…” Thomas is trying to search for the next move, the solution, the right thing to do next.

“We need to go to the lab,” Cleo says.

“We don’t have the means, we don’t have the time,” Gally says.

“We have to figure it out,” Cleo says. “Marie won’t take it, not if it’s the only one, and Newt won’t either, not if it takes away from the other. We all know that. And if they both die none of this will have been worth it.”

“You aren’t going to leave without more are you?” Gally asks. Cleo smiles at him, a soft smile, filled with sadness.

“Gally, if I ask you to-,”

“No,” he says. “Not going to happen.”

“Then at least I know where we are going,” Cleo says, pulling the door open. Ava’s blood spilt of the floor starts to travel, and it reaches nearly where Cleo stood to take the shot and she feels a strange feeling. Not of sadness. Not of relief. Just empty. Like her job isn’t done.

Cleo tucks her gun away, out of sight, and they start to make their way to the nearest lab. Cleo doesn’t have much of a plan, any idea what to do once they get there, but she just knows they have to keep moving.

Gally looks up and notices the security cameras, blinking away. “The cameras are back,” Gally says.

“That isn’t ideal,” Cleo says.

“Not for you, I’d guess not,” Janson says from behind them. “But for me, it’s ideal.”

Janson has his gun pointed directly at Cleo, arm out straight, sights clear. Cleo doesn’t try to move, not with Janson, she knows better. Gally tries to reach for his gun but Janson is quick to talk.

“Uh, I wouldn’t do that,” Janson warns him.

“He can shoot much faster than you, and he already has an advantage,” Cleo says.

“He wants me” Thomas says.

“Not the time for self-sacrifice Thomas,” Cleo says. She side-eyes him, and he knows what she means, not only is he the cure but he carries the only cure.

“You need to go,” Thomas says, “I’ll go with Janson, and you go.”

“Sorry, that won’t work,” Janson says. “I need all of you to come with me.”

“What use are they to you?” Thomas asks.

“Cleopatra is the closest thing I have to someone who can help make the cure” Janson says.

“You probably should have thought of that before you killed Teresa, shouldn’t you have Janson?” Cleo asks.

“Poor timing,” Janson says, “but you spent all your childhood in that lab, you’ve got much more of a chance than any of us. Besides,” Janson points the gun at Gally now, “as long as I have him, you’ll do it. Won’t you?”

“Cleo,” Gally says, he is asking, and she knows what he is asking.

“No,” Cleo says, “not worth the risk.” She knows he could probably take the shot, but she isn’t willing to risk it, not willing to lose him. She can’t. Not after everything. She can’t lose him. She would rather die.

“Good girl,” Janson says.

“Don’t,” Cleo growls.

“Do you really think you are in a position to make requests?” Janson asks. He nods forward in the direction they were headed. “Move along now. And I’ll want that gun, boy.”

Newt starts to wake up, he tries to pull himself to his feet and Minho stops him immediately. “Wow, not a good idea,” he says. “You’re still recovering.”

“What happened?” Newt asks. Minho looks to Frypan, who is stood not too far away from them, getting Newt a glass of water. “Minho, what happened?”

“We nearly lost you there,” Minho says. “Really, nearly, lost you.”

“Where…?”

“Cleo went with Thomas,” Minho says, “turns out there is a cure, a real cure, and she went to get it.”

“With Thomas and Gally,” Fry adds, handing Newt the water.

“Marie?” Newt asks.

“She’s just with Brenda,” Minho says. “Fry, go get her.”

“Okay,” Frypan nods and moves to go find Brenda and Marie.

“Tell me what I did,” Newt says.

“I don’t know,” Minho says, “I only got there right at the end.”

“What happened right at the end?” Newt asks.

“You were nearly all gone,” Minho says.

“Stop avoiding my question,” Newt says.

“When we got there,” Minho says, “you and Cleo-,”

“She’s gone,” Brenda says.

“What?” Minho asks, turning to Brenda.

“I thought she had come to be here, with Newt, but Frypan says she was with me?” Brenda asks.

“She was,” Minho says.

“She was, but she isn’t anymore,” Brenda says.

“Where did she go?” Minho asks, getting up.

“Where do you think?” Brenda asks.

“She went to get Cleo,” Newt says.

“Can she do that?” Fry asks. “And still be Marie?”

“I don’t know,” Brenda says, “we have no way of knowing what happened after she left.”

Cleo is watching Janson who is standing, so still, so confident, like he has won already, gun pointed at Gally still, while Cleo tries to find the right needle to retrieve Thomas’s blood. “Sorry,” Thomas whispers.

“What for?” Cleo says, opening another draw, but to no avail.

“I know you don’t like needles,” Thomas says. Cleo laughs, a little chuckle, that shows just how on edge she really is.

“That is what you’re worried about right now?” Cleo asks. “Could you be anymore of a big brother if you tried?” Thomas smiles, just a little bit.

“That might be the only nice thing you’ve ever said to me,” Thomas jokes.

“I’ve said plenty of nice things to you,” Cleo says.

“Enough talking,” Janson says. “What is taking so long?”

“I can’t find a damn needle,” Cleo says.

“Top draw,” comes another voice from doorway. Cleo looks and sees her, Marie, or Curie, she can’t tell in the doorway, her gun pointed at Janson.

“Curie,” Janson says, “perfect.”

“Gun, down,” she tells Janson, voice flat.

“Of course, protect the immunes,” Janson says. “But your mission right now, is to make the cure from Thomas, isn’t it?”

“That is my orders,” she responds.

“Well,” Janson gestures to where Cleo is with Thomas, “why don’t you do your job, and protect the immunes, by making the cure?”

“Lower your gun,” she tells Janson.

“No,” Janson says, “only when you’ve made the cure. I won’t shoot them, I won’t harm them, as long as you make the cure. You are programmed to protect the immunes, and you can hurt me until I shoot, so, checkmate daughter of mine.”

She looks at him, no expression on her face, just an empty stare, like she is trying to figure out if there is any loophole she missed. But she can’t find one. So, she puts her gun down and moves to the draw with the needles. “Move,” she tells Cleo, almost pushing her out the way so she can sit next to Thomas.

“Marie?” Thomas asks.

“Do I seem like I am Marie?” she asks, not looking at him as she tries to locate a vein.

“I told you, you had to stay with Newt,” Cleo says.

“I had to locate Thomas, I had to make a cure,” she responds. Cleo looks to Janson, who has the gun still pointed at Gally, but isn’t looking at Gally at all, eyes are on Thomas. Cleo starts to asses her chances, Gally very slowly shakes his head.

“Don’t,” he mouths. Cleo wants to, she wants to fight back, it is in her nature. But part of her knows Gally is right, not only is Janson clearly infected, and already very dangerous, but also, if he gets Curie to make more cure, that is something they can use. So, she has to bide her time, wait to the right moment.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” she asks Cleo.

“What?” Cleo asks.

“It is in my interest to know if you found what you were looking for,” she responds. “You are more unpredictable and a liability to your fellow immunes when you are focused on other things.”

_Her fellow immunes_. Curie knows Cleo isn’t immune. Curie knows that it was all a lie… which means that the person sat taking Thomas’s blood isn’t Curie. It’s Marie.

“Yes,” Cleo says. “I found what I was looking for.”

“Ava?” Marie asks, trying to keep her tone as flat as possible, but her heart is racing.

“Ava didn’t make it,” Cleo says. “But she told me exactly what I asked her to,” she pauses, thinking about Janson, “I know what happened with my father.”

“Oh,” Janson laughs. “You really do have, all your memories back, don’t you?”

“Janson,” Cleo says, “go fuck yourself.”

Janson moves to point the gun back at Cleo and Marie, without looking, raises her gun to Janson, “protect the immunes,” she reminds him.

“I won’t shoot her,” Janson says. “As long as you make the cure.”

Marie draws six vials of blood and then she moves to the other side of the lab, picking up some other things. “You’ve done this before?” Gally asks.

“I watched Teresa make many vials of serum, it is a simple process,” Marie says, eyes on what she is doing, trying not to give herself away.

“Curie isn’t designed to forget anything,” Janson says, “she is my greatest achievement.”

“You didn’t program her,” Cleo says.

“No, but she is my daughter,” Janson says. Gally just rolls his eyes at this point.

“Is everyone Wicked born?” he asks.

“No,” Cleo says, “us.”

“And your sister,” Janson says.

“Yeah,” Cleo says through gritted teeth, “and my sister.”

Marie places the vials on the table, all six now that crystal blue that the serum, the bliss, always looks like. That all promising blue. “Cleopatra?” Marie asks.

“Yes?” Cleo asks.

“When Marie took the shot back in The Scorch, before the explosion, the shot at the rope, did you know it wasn’t her?” Marie asks.

“I never doubted Marie, not for a moment,” Cleo says.

“Would you give her the same amount of faith now?” Curie asks.

“Always,” Cleo says.

“One more question,” Marie says. “When you asked Marie to get in the box, to escape The Maze, do you remember what you said?”

_“That’s okay,” Cleo reassures her. She holds out her hand to Ma. “You trust me?”_   
  


“Yes,” Cleo says.

“Do you remember what Marie said?” she asks.

“What is the point of this?” Janson asks. But Cleo is thinking.

_“More than anything in this world,” she says._

“I do,” Cleo says.

“If Marie asked for that kind of faith right now?”

“I’d give it to her, in a heartbeat,” Cleo says.

“Curie?” Janson asks. “What is going on?”

“Leo,” Marie says, “Now!”

Cleo moves forward and grabs the gun in Janson’s hand, Gally is quick to move too, Marie grabbing all six vials of cure and Thomas’s hand, goes for the door. Janson knocks back, and his gun hits the floor but so does Cleo. “Keep her running,” Cleo tells Thomas. Thomas doesn’t argue and doesn’t give Marie a chance to, he pulls her out the room before she can even speak.

“You sneaky little,” Janson reaches for his gun again but Gally, picks up something from the table and smashes it over Janson’s head, he falls down and Gally pulls Cleo to her feet. Gally reaches for the gun Janson took from him, but Cleo just pulls him out the room.

“No time,” Cleo tells him. “He is infected and we know how much that strengthens a person.”

“It weakens them too,” Gally says as they rush to catch up with Thomas and Marie.

“You got out those cuffs pretty quickly,” Cleo says. There is a gunshot behind them and Gally starts to run faster.

“Cleo!” Marie yells back to them. She is barely ahead of them now and Thomas is trying to figure out the quickest way to the roof, he has the communicator in hand, Marie brought it with her, just in case. She was always smart like that.

“We are coming,” Cleo tells her.

“No,” Marie says, “behind you.”


	46. Run Faster

A crank slams against the door next to Cleo, and Janson is moving up the corridor, and Cleo realizes exactly where they are, she doesn’t understand what turns they took to get here, but she knows where they are.

“Two lefts and there is a service staircase,” Cleo says, “it leads to the roof, they can meet us there.”

“How do you know that?” Thomas asks.

“I just know,” Cleo says. “But I need to go ahead, I need you to take Marie.”

“No,” Marie starts.

“Take Marie, Thomas, and fucking run,” Cleo tells him.

Thomas nods but Maris has time to resist now. “No, I am not leaving you,” she says.

“I need you to be brave okay Marie, I need you to be brave for me,” Cleo says.

“I can’t, I can’t,” Marie says.

“Yes, you can,” Cleo tells her, “be brave for me right now and you got with Thomas, I’ll see you up there.”

“Cleo,” Marie says.

“Just go, please,” Cleo says, “I am asking this of you, for me.”

Marie looks at her, and she can’t say no, not after everything. Marie looks at Gally. “I won’t leave her,” Gally tells Marie. “I promise.”

“Now,” Cleo squeezes Marie’s hand. “I love you, and fucking run.”

Janson, shaking now from the virus. He misses his shot and Cleo and he even laughs at himself. “You children, you think you have some kind of right, you never earned your immunity, your blood was a gift you never deserved,” Janson says.

“But it is there’s none the less,” Cleo says. Janson cocks his head to the side.

“There’s?” he asks. Cleo smiles.

“You didn’t think I was immune, did you?” Cleo asks and takes a shot. Janson doesn’t even look to see where the bullet landed. He just looks at her, curious.

“You think you’re so clever, and after all that, you missed,” he says. Cleo shakes her head.

“No, no I didn’t,” Cleo says. The bullet hit the control for the door. The door that had kept the cranks that tore Teresa apart inside. The cranks that are now very focused on the noise and the rushing of the living people. One leans on the door and it just opens. Janson turns his gun on the cranks but he doesn’t have time. One goes straight for his throat while another two grab at a leg. A stray bullet nearly hits Gally but Cleo pulls him out the way. She watches as Janson struggles and eventually struggles no more.

“Cleo,” Gally says, as the other cranks start to look up, start to notice them. She starts nodding.

“Yeah, yeah, we need to run,” she says taking Gally’s hand again.

“All you seem to do is run,” Gally says trying to remember where Cleo told Thomas to go.

“From the moment I woke up in the box, I were running,” Cleo says turning the corner, “out of time, from Wicked, from grievers, from myself, from my memories, from my feelings. From my past.”

“Aren’t you tired of running?” he asks.

“I am not running away anymore,” she says, “now I am running towards something. I much prefer that. But what about you?”

“What about me?” Gally asks trying to open the door to the service stairs.

“You never were a runner, never made for it, you said it yourself in the tunnels, what changed?” Cleo asks.

“You are kidding, right?” Gally asks. Cleo shakes her head, trying to get her breath back but she can hear the cranks, they aren’t far away, they are running and they don’t tire, not like she and Gally.

“What changed?” Cleo asks.

“The same thing that changed everything,” Gally says, “you.” Cleo puts her weight into the door and it swings open, Gally grabs her, keeping her on her feet as they head for the stairs. “The moment you ran into The Maze Cleo, I realized something. I realized I’d follow you anywhere, because no matter how much you drive me insane, and you do, you really do. I’d rather you drive me crazy than be anywhere else than with you.”

“I shot you,” Cleo says, as the cranks make it to the stairs.

“I forgive you,” Gally reminds her.

“I don’t want your forgiveness Gally, I want you to know that you are worth more than that,” Cleo says. She tastes blood in her mouth from all the running but she knows she can’t stop. If she stops it isn’t just her who dies, it isn’t just her that is screwed. Because Gally won’t leave her, even if he knew…

“It doesn’t matter,” Gally says, “because I’ll love you anyway. Even if it’s pointless-,”

“It’s not,” Cleo says. “I love you too.”

“Then run faster,” he smiles.

From the top of the building Thomas and Marie can see the state of things, the way the city is burning down. The way it looks like the beginning of the end all over again. The footage on Ava’s recording, the riots, the pain, the panic, it’s happening around them. Thomas tries to reach Brenda on the walkie, but there is just static.

“Marie,” Thomas says slowly, “are you okay?”

“Where are they?” Marie asks.

“Brenda is on the way,” Thomas says.

“Not Brenda, where are Cleo and Gally?” Marie asks, looking back at the door.

“I am sure they are coming,” Thomas says, but he doesn’t sound sure.

“Can you promise me that?” Marie asks. Thomas shakes his head. “We have to go back.”

“No,” Thomas says, grabbing onto her hands. “We can’t, I told Cleo I would keep you safe and I meant it. No matter what it takes, I would keep you safe.”

“They could be dying back there,” Marie says.

“Cleo made a choice,” Thomas says, “and she knew what that choice could mean.”

“I’m not leaving without her,” Marie says. The sound of the Helicarrier becomes clear over the sirens and the yelling, and they both look up.

“They’re here,” Thomas says pulling Marie closer to the buildings edge. The Helicarrier door opens and Brenda stands with Minho and Frypan.

“Get closer!” Brenda yells.

“Come on,” Thomas says trying to convince Marie to move, but she digs in her heels.

“I’m not leaving without them” she says.

“Marie you have the cure,” Thomas reminds her. “You need to get that to Newt, that’s what Cleo would want.”

“Guys!” Brenda yells.

“Cleo isn’t here yet!” Marie yells.

“We will wait, but get your asses up here,” Minho says offering his hand. “Please.”

“I can’t make that,” Marie says looking at the distance.

“Yes you can, you just have to trust me,” Minho says holding his hand to her.

“Minho,” Marie looks at the distance and then at him.

“Have I let you down before?” he asks.

“Never,” she says.

“Then take my hand Marie, just this once?” he asks. Marie pulls the vials out of her pocket.

“Take these first,” Marie says, “it’s the cure and it is all we have.”

“Not technically all,” Thomas says, pulling the one vial from his pocket. “We have seven.” The look Marie gives him. “Yelling at me can wait.”

Brenda takes the vials, catching each one and placing them safely inside the Helicarrier and then Minho offers his hand again. “Cleo,” Marie says.

“For Cleo,” Minho says. “Please.” She takes his hand and makes the jump.

“Now you Tommy,” Brenda says. Thomas stands on the edge of the building, looking down at the city below.

“Jump,” Frypan tells him, and he jumps, and he lands awkwardly on the Helicarrier floor.

“Is that everyone?” comes a voice from up front.

“No,” Brenda says.

“I can’t keep this close for much longer, nothing is steady,” Jorge tells her.

“We need to wait just a minute,” Brenda tells him. “Cleo and Gally are coming.”

“We hope,” Thomas says.

“You hope?”

Cleo and Gally make it to the roof door and Cleo practically falls through it. Gally is so fast to close it but as he rests his back against the door, and sees the Helicarrier, waiting, and hears the cranks making their way up the final set of stairs, he realizes. They can get up here before he and Cleo can make it to the Helicarrier.

“Go, get on,” Gally says. Cleo takes a step forward before realizing that he isn’t taking her hand.

“Gally what are you doing?” Cleo asks.

“I have to keep the door closed,” he tells her.

“We have to go,” Cleo says.

“No, you have to go, and fast,” Gally tells her.

“I am not going without you,” Cleo says moving to lean on the door. The others can see them, but don’t understand what is happening.

“Why aren’t they running?” Frypan asks.

“Cleo! Gally!” Brenda yells. “Come on!”

“I am not going without you,” Cleo says, “not happening.”

“Cleo, no, you have to run” he says. Cleo pushes harder against the door as the first crank rushes into it on the other side.

“Not without you,” she says.

“Cleo don’t be dumb about this,” Gally says.

“I won’t go without you Gally, I lost you once and it nearly killed me, I can’t lose you again, I won’t, so I won’t go without you. I won’t leave you to die, not again.”

“Cleo, please,” he says. “You finally have a chance, don’t waste it on me.”

“You won’t be able to convince me Gally, if you’re trying to sacrifice yourself, I’m going down with you,” Cleo says.

Marie is watching them, she unlike the others is actually figuring out what is going on. “Gally don’t do it,” Ma whispers, “you’ll kill you both.” She sees her, Cleo, and she doesn’t have to hear the words she is saying to know what she is saying. Marie goes to move forward, to try and get to them, but someone grabs her arm, keeping her still.

“Don’t,” Newt says, barely able to stand. “Stay.”

“What about Marie?” Gally asks.

“Marie will understand,” Cleo says, “she won’t like but she will understand.”

“You can’t leave her,” Gally says.

“I can’t leave you,” Cleo says, “she has Newt and Tommy and Minho, she’ll be okay.”

“She needs you, Cleo,” Gally says.

“I need you,” Cleo says. “And I don’t care if that’s selfish. I am not leaving you to die when I am already dying, if someone has to stay it should be me, and I know you won’t go without me, so we stay here together.”

“What do you mean?” Gally asks. Cleo raises her arm, showing the marks that Newt made, there is a darkness in the blood that is still drying around her wound. “You don’t know if that’ll-,”

“I know Gally,” Cleo says, “I can feel it, I felt it when we were talking to Ava. I can feel in my veins like a fire. I know what it is, and I know what it means.”

“We have a cure,” Gally says.

“I’m not going without you,” Cleo says. “So, if we stay, we stay together.”

The building next to them starts to break down, the building they’re in is already failing structurally, they all know it. Gally looks at Cleo and the way she looks back at him, he knows he has two choices. “If we are going to do this, we have to run, fast,” Gally says. “Faster than we ever have. And then you have to jump.”

“I know,” Cleo says.

“Together?” He asks, readying to run.

“Together,” Cleo says. She looks at the distance between the Helicarrier and the edge.

“You going to let me help you this time?” Gally asks.

_“That way,” he says. The wall between them and where they intend to go is tall. Gally offers Newt a leg up and despite his own feelings, he takes it. Thomas pushes past Gally._

_“I don’t need your help” Thomas tells him, and struggles but after a moment makes it over. Gally looks at Cleo._

_“What about you Cleo?” he asks. “Are you going to sulk on this one too or?”_

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” Cleo asks. He nods, and they both run. It takes a moment for the door to buckle under the weight of the cranks. That moment gives them the distance from the door to the ledge, Thomas is holding out his hand. They can both hear the building collapsing beside them, the sound of time running out.

“Jump,” Gally tells her, and she does, and Thomas grabs her, she lands hard on the metal floor. She turns to smile at Gally, the words on her tongue, ready to say they made it. Except he isn’t beside her. She turns to see him still on the ledge, and he kicks a crank back into the growing flames. He looks at her.

She reaches for him, hand desperately outstretched in the distance between safety and death, Thomas still holding onto her from pulling her up. “Sorry Cleo,” he says as the building gives way.


	47. Don't Apologize

She catches his hand and she holds on tight as the Helicarrier pulls away from the carnage. “If you let go Gally I swear I will kill you,” Cleo says. Minho helps catch his other hand and pull him onto the Helicarrier floor. Cleo caught between a panic attack and the exhaustion of everything lands slam on her back at the door closes. She is gasping for air. Gally, who lands besides her, reaches out for her.

“You okay?” he asks.

“You really have the audacity to ask me that?” Cleo manages between breathes.

Cleo doesn’t get a chance to catch her breath before Marie is dropping to the floor beside her and pulling her into a hug. “You really weren’t going to jump, were you?” Marie asks.

“I don’t think you want me to answer that,” Cleo says. She looks to Brenda. “Can someone stab her with a needle already, make me stop worrying about it?”

“We just saved your lives, can you stop worrying about everyone else for two minutes?” Brenda asks.

“Don’t know if it’s possible,” Cleo admits. She looks to Gally again, who has a hand on his chest, struggling to get his breath back. “Only got one good lung.”

“I probably should stop running so much,” Gally says.

“There will be no more reason to run soon,” Cleo says, reaching for his hand. 

“What about towards something?” he asks. Cleo smiles, feeling like she might pass out.

“What is there left to want?”

Brenda, once far out of the city limits and on a much steadier path, starts to get the cures ready. “You remembered how to do it?” Brenda asks Marie as she finds something on the carrier to inject the cure with.

“I have all of Curie’s memories,” Marie says, looking a little at Minho, trying not to be noticed as she does. “Curie watched Teresa with such intent, it was like even Curie didn’t trust her, so she saw all she did, day in, day out, Teresa did a lot of work on the cure, on the serum. She was misguided and she made a lot of mistakes, but she did want to help. She just had the wrong idea about helping.”

“It’s impressive,” Brenda tells her, placing a hand on her knee. “With everything you must have gone through, you get all those memories in your head, it must be agonizing, and yet, not only did you manage to sneak past, all of us, you managed to fool Janson by pretending to be Curie, who is the opposite of everything you are by nature, and you also managed to organize your head enough that you could make a cure from her memories. You, Marie, are pretty badass.”

“Thank you,” Marie says, blushing a little. “But really, it wasn’t me.”

“You carried them,” Minho says eavesdropping. “We would all be dead if it wasn’t for you Marie, don’t believe anything else.”

“Minho,” Marie says slowly, and then looks to Brenda. Brenda, grabs her supplies and starts to stand up.

“I shall tend to Newt,” she says, trying to make a discrete exit.

“Minho,” Marie says again.

“Don’t apologize,” Minho says.

“I need to,” Marie says, “for everything you went through.”

“None of that was your fault,” Minho says.

“I know what they did Minho,” Marie looks away, “I know what they made you see, and you never had to save me, you know that right?”

“Ma,” Minho places a hand on her shoulder. “Ma, I care about you, and I know you don’t see me, not like that, and that’s okay. But what I went through, it wasn’t your fault. And I would have tried to save you, no matter what. Over and over. And at least when I was there, at Wicked, I knew you were safe, every time I saw Curie, I knew you were safe, and I knew they were coming for us. What Wicked did to you, was just as unfair as what they did to me, we went through a lot you and I, but we went through it together. I need you to not blame yourself for what they did to me, and I will try to not blame myself for letting them hurt you, can we do that for each other?” Ma nods. “And if you need to talk about it, I think I will understand, I think I’m the one with the most chance of understanding. You’re my best friend Marie, before anything else, you are my best friend, and even if I had to go through hell and back, I knew it meant you weren’t alone, and that made it easier. Because if I had been with the others, and I didn’t know if you were dead or alive or you or her, I think that would have been just as much torture. So, if you need to talk about it, please talk to me, and if you need reminding, I’m here. I’ll always be here for you Marie, it’s what friends do.”

“And if you need to talk, you know I care about you Minho,” Marie says, she looks again like she might cry, and she starts to. Minho wipes the tears from her face and smiles at her softly.

“We are here for each other, aren’t we Ma? It’s what friends do,” Minho says.

“It’s what friends do,” Ma repeats back to him.

“Now please don’t cry,” Minho says, “you saved me, don’t forget that. Don’t ever forget that.”

“You shot Janson?” Newt asks Cleo as she is trying to distract him from the needle. It isn’t even a bother to him, but it is nice to speak to Cleo, it is nice to have a distraction. He wants to apologize, he wants to say so many things. But he lets her talk, and he keeps getting distracted by what he can see around her neck, what he put around her neck.

“I didn’t shoot Janson, I shot at Janson,” Cleo says, “or more accurately I made him think I shot at him, I shot the control panel. Let a bunch of cranks lose, they tore him apart, a fitting end, don’t you think?”

“The same cranks that you were trying to keep off the roof?” Newt asks.

“Those same cranks,” Cleo says, “they had Teresa too, vicious ones those.” She is trying to stay light hearted, she knows that he wants to say something, about her arm, about what happened before Marie saved his life. But she can’t stop thinking about how she reached for her gun.

“You gave her mercy, that is… unexpected,” Brenda says.

“No, it isn’t,” Newt says, “she didn’t do it for her. Did you?”

“It’s what Marie would have wanted me to do,” Cleo says.

“A mercy killing,” Brenda says, “not sure she deserved that.”

“Maybe she didn’t, but she wasn’t the real villain, that title belongs to my mother,” Cleo says.

“What happened with Ava?” Newt asks. Cleo pulls the gun from her pocket and looks at it. One bullet still in the round.

“She is dead,” Cleo says.

“You got your revenge,” Brenda says. Cleo shakes her head.

“No,” Cleo says simple. “I didn’t kill her.”

“Who did?” Newt asks. Cleo glances over to Gally who is talking to Fry and Thomas.

“Gally took the shot,” Cleo says.

“Speaking of shots,” Brenda says moving away from Newt, “your turn princess, give me your arm.”

“Talk to me,” Cleo tells Newt.

“What about?” he asks.

“Anything that stops me looking at that needle,” Cleo says, a nervous laughter in her voice.

“Did you read it?” Newt asks, gesturing to her neck. Cleo looks down, she had forgotten it was even there, the small capsule on the necklace that Newt put on her before. It sits next to the empty vial around her neck, so different that she wonders how she could have forgotten it was there. Cleo shakes her head.

“No,” she says, “do you want it back?”

“No,” Newt says, “it’s yours. It was always yours. Keep it, read it, burn it, I don’t mind, but it’s yours.”

There’s a silence and Brenda gives Newt a look, like he needs to say something, as she hovers the needle above Cleo’s arm. “I’m sorry,” Newt says quickly.

“No,” Cleo says, “no apologize, I’m so sick of apol-ouch-,”

“Sorry,” Brenda says, “but it’s done now at least.” Cleo glares at her. “I’m going to leave before you hurt me.”

“Good call,” Cleo says, holding her arm where Brenda stabbed her with the cure. Right above the bandage that covers the marks that Newt made.

“I do owe you an apology,” Newt says.

“No,” Cleo sighs, “you don’t.”

“I could have killed you,” he reaches and places a hand on her bandage. “I could have killed you twice.”

“I nearly killed myself like four times today, you ain’t special,” she teases.

“You really weren’t going to do it, were you?” Newt asks. Cleo looks away. “Look at me. Please.” She drags her eyes back to him. He looks better, the serum and now the cure, they seem to be helping pretty fast. There is colour back in his face and the dark veins are gone. But he still looks so fragile. So soft. She is scared he could shatter.

“I said I wasn’t going to hurt you, I meant it,” Cleo says.

“You really were just going to let me kill you,” Newt says. Cleo scoffs.

“I wouldn’t say I was letting you,” Cleo says. “I was pretty resistant to the idea.”

“Not just then, not just when I lost it, but when Tommy sent Brenda away, you were willing to be left to die,” Newt says.

“Newt,” Cleo says. “I wasn’t willing to let you and Marie be left behind, whatever the cost.”

“You love, so wholly, so completely, even to detriment to yourself, don’t you Cleo?” Newt asks.

“It is why I was such a disappointment to my mother,” Cleo says, trying to laugh it off.

“I bet he’d be proud of you though, your dad,” Newt says. “And Mary, she would be so very proud of what you’ve done.”

“You really think so?” Cleo asks, “we helped burn a city to the ground, we are selfish, we are running away from the state of the world, and saying screw everyone else.”

“You aren’t selfish for finally choosing to live Cleo,” Newt says. “It makes a real nice change.”

“You too,” Cleo says. “How far you’ve come from the boy who came up in that box. Or the boy who walked into that lab, either.”

“You have an effect on people,” Newt says. Cleo rolls her eyes.

“I don’t think it was me,” Cleo says, looking at Marie as she talks to Minho. “I think we all changed, and it was for so many reasons, and we became better and stronger, and we went through all the things we went through. And they sucked, they really did. But we survived, and I don’t think you can say that’s on me. I think we did that together, all of us.”


	48. The Letter

Vince doesn’t really know what to say when the Helicarrier lands. Lizzie hugs Newt so hard both Cleo and Marie are worried she might snap him in half. Harriet and Aris can’t stop telling them over and over how they knew they were coming back, how they never doubted them, not for a moment.

“You waited for us?” Cleo asks.

“We figured we owed you that much.”

The journey to the safe heaven is slow and there is a lot of time for Cleo to look at the water and think of the few childhood memories she has of it. She spends a lot of her time wandering from person to person, checking and making sure everyone is okay. She spends a lot of time with Marie and Bessie, letting Bessie fill in a lot of blanks Marie has in her memories, letting Bessie talk about all the time Marie and Cleo was gone. Bessie doesn’t know what she did, and the girls could never fully make her understand the part she played in saving everyone, but they let her know how important she is and how they could never repay her. She just smiles and asks to play a game.

Cleo tries to introduce herself to as many of the other kids as she can, trying to keep everyone focused on forward, on where they are headed. Vince tells her that he doubted they would ever make it back. “At least your honest.”

In one of her quiet moments, Cleo finds a seat by herself, knowing they’ll arrive soon and things will be in a rush again for a little while, and she doesn’t know when else she would get the chance, and knowing what she has to do when they get there. She finds the time to sit down and open the capsule. She pulls out the paper, folded so small and hesitates. Newts words from the Helicarrier in her mind: “it’s yours. It was always yours. Keep it, read it, burn it, I don’t mind, but it’s yours.”

She holds her breath and opens the letter.

_Cleo,_

_This is the first letter I can remember writing, I don’t know if I wrote any before the maze, in all the glimpses of memory, I don’t remember that. But even if this isn’t my first letter, it is likely to be my last. So I guess I need to make it count, even if it probably won’t be the quality it needs to be, it wont be what you deserve, any of you. But I don’t know what is coming, or rather, I know and I just don’t know what to do. So, a letter felt like a good idea, the more I write the more cowardly it feels, but I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to tell you in person, and I don’t know if I did, if I would get it right even then._

_I want you to know first of, that I am not scared. Well, not of dying anyway, its more forgetting, it’s losing myself to this virus, that’s what scares me. So, every night I’ve been saying their names out loud, Alby, Winston, Chuck, and I just repeat them over and over like a prayer and it all comes flooding back. Just the little things, that I don’t want to forget. The way the sun used to hit the glade at the perfect moment right before it hit the walls, the view from the watch tower on clear nights, where they sky was as clear anything else. The fireside, the way the smoke would rise and sway almost exactly in pattern with the way you and Marie would sing. The arrow marks in the trees from days you wanted to shoot something and you actually did. The way Marie would sometimes hum when she was fixing wounds, like she was healing through her song. The songs, I remember them all, all the stories you both would tell, and the way you looked at each other like there was no one else in the world. I remember Frypan’s stew, something I never thought I’d miss. I remember the way Chuck would pick you girls flowers and you would sit in the sun slowly weaving those flowers in each other’s hair like you had nothing else in the world to do. I remember the first time I heard you laugh, and the first time you nearly fell. I remember you. You._

_I don’t want to forget you. I don’t want to lose you to this, this poison in my veins that threatens to take away everything I have ever loved. And the longer it is there, the more I remember, about before. About the lab. I know you think I was never supposed to love you Cleo, and maybe you believe that you were only ever just a place holder for her, waiting for her to come up in the box and take the place in my heart that was always hers. Because it was always hers. But I need you to know, I don’t regret loving you._

_Falling in love with you, in The Maze, in The Glade, in the time we had that was just us. It was complicated and it was messy, and a lot of that was my fault, I am not afraid to admit that. It was my fault. But I want you to know, that it wasn’t because you weren’t good enough, that you weren’t enough for me. You would have been everything to me, everything for me, if I had let you, and I know that. I loved you with a kind of love I didn’t know I had in me, and you loved me with a kind of reckless abandon that could have kept us safe in that space in time, happy, forever if we had let it._

_I know things got complicated, I know things can never be changed, and untangled from the mess we made of the two of us. But when I kissed you and I thought we would die, I need you to know I was okay with that, knowing that just once, I got to kiss the girl I fell in love with despite never meaning to. I spent every day after that moment in the trees, wishing I had kissed you, and I thought it would be my only regret, knowing I didn’t._

_My regrets are different now. And none of them are your fault, and I need that in writing, so when you forget, I can remind you, even when I am no longer here._

_I don’t regret falling in love with you Cleo, but I don’t want that to mean you hold onto me forever. I know you love me, and I know you have always loved me. Even when I was stupid enough to not see you. Even when I didn’t deserve it, and there have been times when I didn’t deserve it. But I am so lucky to be loved by you, and I want you to know, that even if we had never been in The Maze, even if Wicked had different plans for us, I believe that one day I would have understood exactly how important you are. I would not have loved you the same, but I would have loved you just as truly._

_So, when I say I want you to be happy, know I mean it. I know I have been difficult and I have been selfish and even jealous. But I don’t have anything to be jealous of when I am gone. And I don’t want you to love me so much that you never let yourself be loved. And he loves you, and I know, because you said it and I know you meant it. You love him too. So, when I’m gone, don’t feel bad about Gally, you shouldn’t feel bad now. He loved you in a way I wasn’t able to, because it didn’t matter that I loved you, truly loved you, because we both know what we have been avoiding. Or I have been avoiding. You wanted me to accept it, and you said I owe you nothing, but I don’t think that’s true._

_Could you tell Tommy that I meant it when I said I would follow him anywhere?_

_Could you tell Minho I could never have asked for a better friend?_

_Could you tell Fry, that he should be afraid of who he is, because he is one of the best people I ever had the pleasure to know, and anyone would be lucky to know him?_

_And I know it isn’t fair to ask you, but could you tell Marie something for me?_

_Because, you were right, like you often are, and, if I never get the chance to tell her, can you tell her for me? I know that isn’t fair to ask, but I know you love her as much as I do, if not more. So, will you tell Marie this? A dying wish?_

_Marie,_

_Words will never do justice to what I want to say to you, there is nothing I can say that can explain to you with real honesty how I feel. But I shall try because I only have one shot at this and I have so many things I wish I had time to say, but there are just a few, I need to say, things I cannot leave unsaid if this is my last chance to tell you Ma. Then I must tell you._

_I was in a really bad place for a long time, and I never thought things would get better. I knew love and I knew what it was like to be loved, but I felt like I was missing something. And then I met you, for the second time, but what I thought was the first, and felt like the hundredth. You were so familiar to me in ways I didn’t even understand. I don’t know if you loved me before, and I don’t know what before matters to you, but it doesn’t matter to me. Not because I loved you then, when it was simple, but that I still fell in love with you now, when it wasn’t. I know it wasn’t fair of me, and I understand why you never said all the things you never said, because I know who you are Marie. You are selfless and you are loving and have kindness beyond that of this life. And maybe in another life, one without Wicked and The Flare and this mess, I could have been everything you deserved me to be. I would have been what you needed and what you deserved. I’m not, and I never will be, and you love me anyway, and you were willing to give that up to see me and the girl you care about happy. And I love you even more for that. I love you even more with every day, and it isn’t because I remember more and more as time goes on, it’s because you are you, and even with everything set up for us to fail? How could I not love you Marie? Sweet, lovely, Marie._

_You were never a second choice. I love you Marie, and I am sorry this is how things end, and how I have to say goodbye. But I need you to know, that since that day you came up in the box, you’ve saved my life more times than I can ever count and more than I can ever thank you for._

_So, thank you for loving me, and I need you to remember, that I loved you in return, with all that I am, and more._

_Cleo, look after her for me. And please, look after yourself. I know you forget to do that sometimes, but they need you,_

_To the girls I love, from the boy who was lucky enough to love both,_

_Yours always,_

_Newt._


	49. We Need To Talk

Cleo doesn’t tell Newt she read the letter. Not even after they arrive. She doesn’t tell anyone. She spends a lot of her time thinking. Not deciding. She already did that. She just, doesn’t know what to say or how to say it. And she has a lot she needs to say.

She watches Marie, who is helping everyone else getting settled. She watches Thomas who is helping Brenda build a bonfire.

Cleo stands leaning on the wooden structure of a hut when Newt finally approaches her, all recovered and cheerful. He looks like himself again.

“Anything interesting?” he asks her. She nods her head at Minho, who is standing tall and talking to Sonya and Harriet, they are smiling and nodding along and Minho looks almost smug, if Minho had the capability. “Oh no.”

“I know right,” Cleo says smiling.

“Someone should tell him,” Newt says.

“Where is the fun in that?” she asks. “Let him flirt with the lesbians, it’s funny.” Newt laughs a little.

“It is funny,” he admits.

“Are you okay?” Cleo asks. “Feeling all better?”

“Completely,” he says.

“I’m glad,” she pats his arm gently but keeps her eyes on the others.

“How about you?” Newt asks. “Are you okay?”

“I’m figuring it out,” Cleo says. “I’ll be great though, in the end.”

“Cleo, we need to talk,” Newt says.

Cleo looks at Newt and before she can decide against it, she kisses him, grabbing a handful of his shirt to pull him in. He is taken off guard and he doesn’t really have that much time to react, but he looks sad when she pulls away. “Why does that feel like a goodbye?” he asks.

“Because it is,” Cleo says. “At least, for that part of myself.”

“Cleo,” he tries.

“I’ve made my choices Newt,” Cleo looks to Gally now who is helping with some supplies. He hasn’t spotted her yet, and he hasn’t really said much to her since she saved his life. She thinks he is likely scared she will have a lot to say to him, and she does, and she will.

“And your choice is him?” Newt asks.

“I,” Cleo sighs. “Newt, I love you and as far as I know I have always loved you, so I feel I was likely always meant to love you, and I don’t think a part of me will ever really stop, a quiet part of me. But the loud part, that does all the decision making, that has to stop. It has to.”

“Why?” he asks. Cleo sighs.

“Because I don’t think that we were meant to be together, not really, I know I would love you no matter the way things turned out, but I also know the most important thing,” Cleo looks at Marie now, “she will always come first.”

“But she’s safe now,” Newt says.

“It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter if we think we are safe, or if we are, it doesn’t matter because safety isn’t the point, Marie will always come first, I will always choose her over everything and everyone else, and I can’t do that with you,” Cleo says. “That is selfish, and you deserve to be loved the way she loves you Newt. And I know you love her too, I am just clouding that, I am the last obstacle you need to overcome.”

“So, you can’t do it to me, but you can to Gally?” he asks.

“I lost Gally once, I won’t lose him again, and that is selfish, but I was never anything but selfish from the beginning, Gally wasn’t someone I was so supposed to fall for Newt, he was someone that I shouldn’t have ever fallen for, someone I should never have been involved with, and yet here we are, and I will always choose Ma, and he knows that,” she says.

“I know that,” he says.

“I know,” Cleo says. “But I shot him, he knows-,”

“So, you are choosing him because you feel guilty?” Newt asks.

“No, see you don’t get it, do you?” Cleo asks.

“No, I am trying to understand,” Newt says.

“I cured Marie after I knew you were infected,” Cleo says. Newt looks a little surprised. “She told me that I couldn’t cure her because of you, and I did it anyway. Because I would find a way to help you Newt, I always would, and to lose you would destroy me, but I can’t even think straight when Marie is in danger. I put her above everything, including you, and I can’t do that to you, not when she loves you so much. So much, and I know you love her too. And I shot Gally, and he came back, he’s an idiot, for sure, but he loves me, and he has never once held it against me. And when he- when I nearly lost him again, Newt if I hadn’t got him, I think I would have gone after him. I think I would have stayed on that building, and I think that might have been easier, if I had died there, on that building in the flames. Full circle. But I didn’t, we lived and I’m grateful, but I also know the truth, and I think you do too.”

“But I loved you first,” he says.

“No, you didn’t, we both know that” Cleo wraps him in a tight hug. “And that’s okay Newt, I know that you feel a duty, a loyalty to me, but if you really love me, if you ever really loved me, then you would know, that you can love her, I want that for you, I wouldn’t ever want to come between that.”

“Cleo.”

“Just tell me the truth, okay, please. I am walking away either way.”

“You read the letter,” Newt says.

“It doesn’t matter if I did or not,” Cleo says.

“So you did,” Newt says. Cleo sighs.

“Can you stop, for a moment thinking about me,” Cleo says, “think about her, think about you, think about finally, finally having the chance to be happy like you both deserve.”

“You know I love her,” Newt says after a moment. “How could I not love her, and it doesn’t matter that the me before The Maze loved her too, because I fell in love with Marie as she is now, but-,”

“No, no buts, you love her, this her, honestly, truthfully, and she loves you, you don’t owe me anything Newt,” Cleo says. “I don’t regret feeling what I feel for you, but I know I don’t want to be watching you anymore, waiting for the right time for us, because I think maybe we missed it, a long time ago. And that’s okay, because you can love someone and know it won’t work out. And you can love someone and you can let them love someone else, and be happy. There is no one else I would rather you love than Marie, Newt.”

“But how am I any better for her-,”

“You aren’t, you don’t deserve her,” Cleo says, “but no one does. So, shut up, she doesn’t want better, she wants you, and I get that,” Gally meets her eye across the distance and he smiles at her completely unaware, “It doesn’t have to make sense to be the truth, it doesn’t have to be perfect to be all you want. I get that.”

“What about Tommy?” Newt asks. They both look across the beach at Thomas who is talking to Brenda and she laughing.

“I think he will be okay,” Cleo says. “As long as she is, we will all be okay.”

“How do I get her to understand?” Newt asks, “after everything, after us, after all we have been through?”

“I mean, personally I’d just tell her what you think you didn’t have time to tell her,” Cleo says. “I think you tell her that it doesn’t matter who you both where, because you love this version of her, and you could never be enough but you want to be. I think that’d work. But what do I know?”

“Cleo,” Newt says after a moment of silence.

“What?” she asks.

“You promise that you’re okay?” he asks.

“Newt, Marie is your always,” Cleo says, “and you are hers, stop worrying about me, and for once, focus on you and her. I’m okay, I promise, I’m okay.” She pushes him forward. “Now go talk to her, you coward.”

“I’m going, I’m going,” he says. She watches him walk away and she smiles. She knows Newt needed the push, she knows that he loves Marie and that in the end, it would always be Marie for him, and she is okay with that. She wants them both to be happy. And that they get to be happy together is just a beautiful bonus. He just needed to stop letting his misplaced duty to her get in the way, and the only way for him to do that was for her to make him. He never owed her a thing, and she is happy he ever loved her, but they were never meant to end up together. She knows that now. And she is okay with it.

“Cleo,” Harriet says grabbing Cleo by the arm.

“Yes Harriet?” Cleo asks, looking at her a little confused.

“Am I interrupting?” she asks, Cleo looks at the midday sun and shakes her head. She puts what was in her hand, in her pocket and gives Harriet her full attention.

“Not at all, what can I do for you?” Cleo asks. Harriet smiles and looks back to Sonya who is still talking to Minho.

“It’s actually more about what I can do for you,” she says, “I found something for you, or rather for Marie, that gift you wanted for her, I found it.” Cleo brightens instantly.

“How?” Cleo asks.

“Well, you were gone a while, and although Vince and Sonya weren’t sure you were ever coming back, Aris and I were sure you were, so I never stopped looking, every supply run, I kept looking and I think I found exactly what you wanted,” Harriet says.

“Where is it?” Cleo asks.

“In my tent, I can get it for you, leave it by your bed?” Harriet asks. “I guess you want to give it to her?”

“Harriet, you are fantastic,” Cleo says, pulling her into a hug. Harriet laughs,

“I owed you one,” Harriet says. She looks back at Sonya who is nodding along to whatever Minho is saying. “Your friend is really friendly, isn’t he?”

“He is hitting on you both,” Cleo says. Harriet laughs.

“He is flat out of luck there,” Harriet says. Cleo nods.

“Don’t we know it, funny to watch though,” Cleo says. “Funny to watch.”

“I like your hair, it looks nice like that,” Thomas tells Brenda. Brenda starts to blush so she looks away.

“Thanks,” Brenda says. She lets her eyes move to Minho, who is still trying his luck with Sonya. “Does someone want to tell Minho that Sonya is Harriet’s girlfriend, or even better Newt’s sister?” Her eyes light up, “can I tell him?”

“Brenda?” Thomas asks. Brenda turns back to him.

“Yeah?” She asks. He doesn’t stop to think, because if he thinks he will talk himself out of it, he just leans in and kisses her. She is taken aback, but she is quick to place a hand on his shoulder to stop him from pulling away.

When he eventually does, he looks embarrassed. “That,” he says.

“Don’t,” Brenda says, “don’t talk, you have a way of ruining things when you talk.”

Newt finds Marie who is smiling watching Thomas and Brenda. “He chose to let himself love her,” Marie says.

“He said he knew he could,” Newt says. Marie looks at him, not expecting to see him there.

“I’m just glad,” Marie says. “I was worried that he was going to spend too much time on something he never chose to feel, that he would lose his chance. Brenda is a catch.”

“He didn’t choose to feel?” Newt asks.

“He never really got a chance to make a choice when it came to me,” Marie says, “he cared about me and then I was taken away so quickly that he felt he owed so much to me. He loved me, I know he does, but I think they are supposed to be. Those two. Because they choose each other. Isn’t that what love is really about? Not what we don’t choose, but the things we do?”

“Like you choosing not to tell me how you felt, both before and in The Maze,” Newt says. Marie looks immediately panicked, looking for an out in this conversation. “Sorry,” Newt says quickly, “that was a bad way to open this conversation.” Marie laughs.

“You’re trying,” she says. “I just don’t know what you’re trying to do.”

“I’m trying to find the right thing to say,” Newt says.

“Newt,” Marie says, “you never have to worry about finding the right thing to say to me. It’s me. You always say the right thing.”

“Always?”

“Always.”


	50. Deserve To Be Happy

Cleo is pushing something around a very small fire she has created. She isn’t far from the main fire, where everyone is gathering now. Brenda is passing out drinks, even to the kids who perhaps are a little too young to be having them, and Thomas is moderating her. Newt and Marie haven’t stopped talking, but have moved closer to the fire. Marie is just smiling, continuously. Newt knew all the right things to say, because it was Marie, and he would always know the right thing to say to Marie.

Cleo is nearly ready to join them, the sun setting but she has something else on her list to do first.

“I am kind of scared to ask, but, what are you doing?” Gally asks, walking across the sand to her. She pokes the stick into the fire a little more.

“Did you know I had one bullet left in my gun?” Cleo asks looking up to Gally.

“What?” he asks.

“I had one bullet left,” Cleo continues. “I shot you, obviously, and then one bullet helped us escape when we were tied up, one bullet I used to protect Marie from the crank in the tunnels. I used one as a mercy on Teresa, and one to take down Janson.”

“I feel like you have a point,” Gally says, “but I just, I don’t know what it is.”

“That other bullet was for Ava, I was so sure it was always for Ava, it had always been in my head that it was for her, she was the other person who I believed was my responsibility to remove, to finish, and you took that away,” Cleo says. Gally sighs, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry Cleo,” he says.

“Don’t be,” she says tipping a cup of water over the fire and watching it all fizzle out. “You were protecting me, again. Like you always do.” Cleo pulls the gun from her pocket and looks at the water. “Want to help me?” Cleo asks.

“Help you what?” he asks.

“Throw this thing are far into the deep blue as I can?” Cleo asks.

“You cannot throw,” he says. “You can shoot but you cannot throw.”

“I know,” Cleo says, “hence the help.”

“Okay,” Gally says, taking the gun from her hand.

“You just want me to?”

“Just throw it,” she tells him. He does and it goes surprisingly far, and she watches as it hits the water, hears the splash and disappears. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Gally says, still confused.

“But, still, I had one bullet left,” Cleo says continuing her point.

“Maybe that is a good thing,” Gally says. Cleo reaches into the ashes and pulls out the metal chain that used to hold the Wicked serum vial.

“It is a good thing, because it proved to me once again, that I was wrong,” Cleo says, Gally looks surprised, Cleo doesn’t often admit she is wrong, because she often isn’t wrong, “because I once again convinced myself that it was ever anything except you.”

“Is this a very weird way to threaten to shoot me again?” Gally asks. Cleo smiles.

“No,” she shakes her head, and dusts the chain off, and holds it up. The last bullet from her gun has melted onto the chain. She looks at him and leaning forward she pulls his necklace out from under his shirt to compare it to hers. “Not as neat, but yours actually got shot, whereas mine I took from the cylinder.”

“You made yourself a necklace?” Gally asks.

“Yeah, the first bullet,” she lets go of his “and the last, it felt appropriate,” Cleo says holding the chain out to him to help her put it on. But she hesitates. “If… you still wanted me, that is?”

“What?” Gally asks.

“I am really messing this up, I was trying to be… cryptic in like a charming way, but I think I am just not making my point clear,” Cleo sighs. “You told me once that, it won’t matter that I developed feelings for Newt first, because you will be last.”

“I remember,” Gally says.

“Do you still feel that way?” Cleo asks.

“Are you actually asking me that?” he asks. “Cleo it has always been you for me, only you, since the day we met.”

“So, you’re okay with loving a girl that took this long to realise what she wanted?” Cleo asks.

“Only if that girl is you,” he says. She hands him the chain.

“Then will you help me?” Cleo says. He takes the necklace and she turns around, so he drapes it over her neck and adjusts the clasp, he is hesitant, not sure if he is doing it exactly right.

“There, I think,” he says, letting it go. The weight feels good around Cleo’s neck. Natural. Like it was always supposed to be there. She turns back to him and bites her lip unsure what to say. “Cleo-,”

She kisses him, before he can say anything, before he can try to say anything, and he kisses her back. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realise,” Cleo says. Gally smiles down at her.

“I’m not,” he says, “I was happy to wait forever.”

“I need a drink after hearing that,” Cleo says, playfully shoving his shoulder, but taking his hand. “Bonfire?”

“Yes,” he says.

There are a few sets of eyes on them as they join everyone around the bonfire. Newt just nods at Gally and Gally isn’t really sure what to say or do so he just nods back. Cleo and Marie share a look, and smile. But Minho just stares.

“So, you and Gally, huh?” Minho asks.

“Shut up,” Cleo says rolling her eyes.

“I honestly didn’t see that one coming” Minho says. “I feel like I really missed something.”

“If it helps,” Gally says, “I didn’t think I stood a chance either so.”

“Shut up, or give me a drink because I won’t put up with this from you Minho” Cleo says. Newt puts an arm around Marie and Brenda hands Cleo a drink.

They sit and they drink and they laugh. Marie and Cleo spend a lot of time trying to play matchmaker to Frypan and Aris, and they are convinced it is working, when Vince raises a glass.

“This one is for the ones who couldn’t be here, here’s to our friends we lost,” Vince says, “this place is for you. It’s for all of us.” Vince gestures to a large stone. “When you are ready, in your own time. This is for those that are no longer with us, but we won’t forget. Whenever you feel you can you write someone’s name on that, and we will remember them. But everyone, it is with a lot of hard work, and a lot of relief, I can finally say. We made it. Welcome to our new home. Welcome to the Safe Haven.” Everyone cheers and downs their drinks.

Cleo pulls Brenda to her feet and helps her to the stone, helping her to write George into the rock. Gally follows them, adding Chuck’s name to the stone, and Cleo kisses his cheek before moving to see Marie. Marie is sat staring at the fire, while the others add Alby, Winston, all those they lost along the way. Cleo knows there are so many names she will have to add to the stone, so many she remembers, she never forgot anyone. But right now, she has something else she has to do. One last thing.

“Marie,” Cleo says offering her a hand to get to her feet. “Can I borrow you?” She looks nervous, especially nervous considering it is Cleo, but she takes her hand to get up.

“About Newt,” Marie says.

“None of that right now,” Cleo says pulling her through the crowds towards Cleo’s space where Harriet left the gift. “I have something for you.”

“Something for me?” Marie asks. “Haven’t you done enough for me? You saved my life, you deactivated Curie, Newt-,”

“Newt was never mine to give,” Cleo says, “I am just happy to see you happy.”

Cleo reaches under her pillow and pulls something out, wrapped in some bedding cloth and thin twine and hands it to Marie. She stares at it. “Open it,” Cleo tells her.

“You didn’t need to,” Marie says.

“Open it already,” Cleo says. Marie looks at her one more time before starting to untwine it. Underneath the cloth and twine Marie sees a soft light fabric, and she looks back at Cleo. “Actually, look at it Marie,” she says practically pulling the wrapping from her hands. Marie holds it out in front of her, and it’s a dress, soft pastel in colour and with a long flowy skirt. “I thought with the soft colours, it would match your ring,” Cleo says, looking at your own, “and I know it isn’t anything special, but I thought you deserved to have something nice, something that was… you.”

“I love it,” Marie says, not taking her eyes off the dress. “Cleo it’s perfect, how did you?”

“I asked Harriet every time she went looking for supplies to keep an eye out, and she came through,” Cleo says. Marie looks so happy, that she might cry.

“Leo,” she says.

“Hey, you deserve to be happy Marie,” Cleo says. Marie pulls her into a hug.

“I love you Leo,” she says.

“I love you too Ma,” Cleo says.

When they rejoin the group, Marie is in her dress and Cleo is wearing her necklace so clearly the bonfire reflects it, on top of her own new clothes. The only thing that stays the same is the rings they both wear.

“I like your necklace, it’s almost wedding ring like,” Jorge says. Gally laughs, choking on his drink and Cleo looks like she could throw something at him.

“Watch it,” she warns Jorge, taking a seat next to Marie by the fire, “I may not have a gun anymore but I can still make an arrow to shoot you.”

“Cleo?” Marie asks, taking a swig of the drinks Brenda is handing out.

“Yeah?”

“Tell your boyfriend this is better than the trash he made in The Glade.”

“Marie I will get you too, you aren’t free from consequences.”

“Yes I am.”

“Yes, you are,” Cleo laughs, leaning into Gally as he puts an arm around her.

“Favoritism,” Newt accuses her, putting his arm around Marie. Cleo nods.

“Damn right.”


End file.
